Finance Minister P Chidambaram is high among the probables who are being considered for the Home Minister's post after the resignation of Shivraj Patil in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai.
Sources said that the names of Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee are doing the rounds to fill the slot vacated by Patil.
Chidambaram, who has had a stint in the Home Ministry as a Minister of State for Internal Security under Rajiv Gandhi, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning when the current situation arising out of the Mumbai terror attacks came up for review.
The Finance Minister was a special invitee at the CWC meeting last night and is also an invitee to the all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister today.
The line the government should take at the all-party meeting was also discussed during his meeting with the Prime Minister.
It was suggested that a resolution seeking all-party consensus on ways to tackle the terror threat may be prepared in the all-party meeting so that the main opposition BJP and others on the opposite side could back the government in the present situation. A similar approach was made by the then NDA government during the terror attack on Parliament in 2001.
Speculation was rife that if Chidambaram is shifted to Home then the Finance portfolio could be retained by the Prime Minister, himself an economist of repute to tide over the current situation thrust by the global meltdown and economic depression. Or in the alternative, another person could be brought in from outside to help the Finance Ministry.
The possibility of Mukherjee coming into Finance, a portfolio he had held under the late Indira Gandhi, was also not being ruled out.
{{/usCountry}}The possibility of Mukherjee coming into Finance, a portfolio he had held under the late Indira Gandhi, was also not being ruled out.
{{/usCountry}}Mukherjee also met the Prime Minister this morning.