The stage is set for the union ministry's first reshuffle on Wednesday evening at 5 pm since its formation after the polls in 2009 following names finalised in a 2-hour long meeting between prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday.

The list was, however, yet to be sent to the Rashtrapati Bhawan at the time of writing this report while president Pratibha Patil reportedly sent feelers if the swearing-in of the new ministers could be put off to Friday as she is slightly unwell.

Hours after confabulations of Sonia Gandhi with the prime minister, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, who also attended the final discussion, started calling ministers to 10 Janpath to submit their resignations as they are to be drafted for the party duties. 

The first four getting the calls were: heavy industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, steel minister Virbhadra Singh, tribal affairs minister Kantilal Bhuria, and minister of state V Narayanasamy. 

Bhuria is being sent to Bhopal to head the party's Madhya Pradesh unit, indicating return of PCC president Suresh Pachauri to the government, most probably as a MoS in the prime minister's office to fill the vacancy caused from Prithviraj Chavan shifted to Maharashtra as the chief minister following the Adarsh Society scam. MoS Home Ajay Maken is also in the reckoning to become the second MoS in the PMO.

Deshmukh and Virbhadra Singh are being dropped as part of the strategy adopted by the prime minister not to have in his government three kinds of persons: facing serious corruption charges, involved in infighting and incompetent. He also identified the ministers for removal or shifting who did not fulfil the promises made by the government in the president's address to parliament last February.

Even as the ministerial changes were being given finalised, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee called for the first meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) at his chamber in the North Block on Friday at 4 PM, indicating that he is not among those shifted in the reshuffle.

Law minister M Veerappa Moily piled up many negatives in his term till date. The PM has put him on the block for failure to notify ratification of the UN convention on the black money, sources in the PMO said. 

MoS (independent charge) minority affairs and corporate affairs Salman Khurshid is getting promoted as the new law minister as part of a strategy to get ready for the assembly elections due in Uttar Pradesh in March 2012, sources said. The same factor may count for moving Keshav Rao, incharge of West Bengal and Jharkhand in AICC, to the ministry as that will also give representation to the agitations-rocked Telangana region.

While Narayanasamy is being brought in the AICC headquarters to handle the assembly polls due in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in March to take advantage of his clean image, shipping minister G K Vasan may also step down to take over as the Tamil Nadu PCC president.

MoS for steel Sai Prathap is being dropped as he has publicly sided with Y S Jagan Reddy who quit the Congress and gave up his Lok Sabha seat a month ago. Another MoS for textile Panabaka Lakshmi from Andhra Pradesh may also be axed.

There was also speculation on shifting of urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy either to some other ministry or to the AICC because the PM is unhappy about the way he handled the Commonwealth Games as head of the group of ministers (GoM) responsible for the smooth conducting of the games. Incidentally, he has planned his annual luncheon party for Delhi journalists on Wednesday, just three hours before all drive down to the Rashtrapati Bhawan for the annopuncements. Another luncheon for the media has been fixed on Friday by home minister P Chidambaram who made it known not to take it as a farewell party.

Sports minister M S Gill may also be shown the door over the CWG rancour and the hot favourite to succeed him is Congress spokesman MP Manish Tiwari. As regards the DMK vacancy caused by the resignation of A Raja as the telecom minister in the wake of the 2G scam, EVS Elangovan is tipped to get a cabinet post, though also in the reckoning is former union minister T R Baalu, who was excluded by Manmohan Singh while forming the government in 2009.

Sources said there may be induction of one from Trinamul Congress and Praful Patel from Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party may be elevated as a full-fledged cabinet minister, but for all practical purposes the most inductions and exclusions are from the Congress party.

Though the Congress is committed to "one man, one post" principle that requires many ministers holding a second position as general secretary in the party to opt for one, sources said health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad may hold two positions as the parliamentary affairs minister and AICC general secretary, killing the chances of J&K PCC chief professor Saifuddin Soz. 

Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni is being tipped to become the HRD minister as the PM wants to continue Kapil Sibal as the telecom minister. There is also speculation that MoS (independent) Srikant Jena will become the cabinet minister, ending the injustice of not giving him the cabinet position he enjoyed earlier.