New Delhi, Sept 06: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today began a preliminary exercise for a minor cabinet reshuffle and expansion likely to take place before he leaves for the US to address the UN General Assembly in New York later this month. Vajpayee held discussions lasting more than an hour at his residence with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu. Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee along with one of her party colleagues - Sudip Bandopadhyay or Ajit Kumar Panja - are among those who are likely to be inducted into the Union Council of Ministers, highly placed BJP sources said. Besides the Trinamool Congress leaders, others who are likely to be included in the council of ministers are BJP chief whip in Parliament, V K Malhotra and Dhananjay Kumar, BJP MP from Mangalore. Kumar's likely induction was to give Karnataka representation in the ministry after Ananth Kumar was appointed president of the state unit, the sources said. The exercise is likely to take place after September 10 when a meeting of BJP central office bearers is slated in Bangalore.

Naidu who was to have left for china immediately after the Bangalore meeting would now be leaving for Beijing on September 17, the sources said.
The Prime Minister would be reaching New York on September 19 and is slated to address the UN General Assembly on September 25.

Bureau Report