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New Delhi Oct 23: After a rather long wait, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looks set to fall back upon the “all-weather” minister of defence, Pranab Mukherjee, to take charge of the external affairs portfolio. And for the labour ministry, the choice may finally rest on old INTUC hand G Sanjiva Reddy.
Following a meeting on Monday evening between the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, government managers indicated that the much awaited filling of vacancy in the ministry of external affairs might not be too far away.
The narrowing down of the choice to Pranab Mukherjee as foreign minister seems to have been prompted by the urgency to have an incumbent in the MEA in place before the Indo-Pak foreign secretary level talks begin.
Mukherjee this morning, however, had told reporters at a media interaction that he had already headed the ministry, an indication that many read as his reluctance. On the other hand, the name of Reddy, senior ministers in the government said, was not a surprise choice.
Reddy, who has been a trade unionist and was INTUC president for a long time, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh earlier this year in June. Reddy served as labour minister in Andhra Pradesh earlier.
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