New Delhi, May 26
The suspense over the expansion of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet ended today with Rashtrapati Bhavan’s official announcement that the next batch of ministers will be sworn in on Thursday.

The swearing-in ceremony was initially slated for today but had to be put off as the exercise of putting together the council of ministers proved to be a tough task given the long list of aspirants from with in the Congress itself. Since tomorrow is Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s death anniversary, the formal induction was, therefore, fixed for Thursday.

With 50-odd ministers expected to be inducted into the council of ministers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were busy putting finishing touches to the list even as Congress MPs continued to jockey for a place in the new dispensation. The ministers who were sworn in last Friday are pushing for a portfolio of their choice while junior ministers in the outgoing government are making a case for a promotion while those on the outside are happy with any ministerial berth.

Faced with pulls and pressures from party MPs, the PM and Sonia Gandhi had a three-hour meeting today. This was followed by another round of consultations between the Congress president and senior party leaders Pranab Mukherjee, AK Anthony and Ahmed Patel.

The expanded council of ministers will include seven representatives of the DMK, six junior ministers from the Trinamool Congress, two from the NCP and the National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah from among the allies.

NCP leader Praful Patel is expected retain civil aviation while Abdullah may get the tourism portfolio.

The Congress quota is expected to include senior party leader from Uttar Pradesh Salman Khursheed, and Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior Dalit leader from Karnataka, that already has two representatives in the Cabinet, SM Krishna and Veerappa Moily.