Top leaders of the Congress Party will meet here on Saturday evening to probably decide on the political futures of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law and Justice Minister Ashwani Kumar.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are likely to preside over this crucial meeting, even as pressure mounts to sack Bansal from the Union Cabinet.
There are reports that Kumar might be shifted to a different portfolio through a Cabinet reshuffle, but this move is yet to be confirmed.
Congress spokespersons have been maintaining that the government is “seized” of the matter of continuance of Bansal and Kumar.
Significantly, Bansal skipped a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Thursday evening, suggesting that he could be on his way out.
With the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arresting his nephew Vijay Singla for allegedly trying to fix the promotion Mahesh Kumar, a Railway Board member, and questioning his private secretary Rahul Bhandari, a 1997-batch IAS officer from Punjab cadre, in connection with the alleged Rs. 10 crore bribery scandal, Bansal now faces the possibility of being questioned himself.
There are reports that Bansal is trying to drum up support for himself with four railway unions describing him as an efficient administrator who is trying to put railways back on track financially.
Kumar, on the other hand, is under attack for vetting the CBI report on coal block allocation scam, with the Supreme Court making critical observations over it. (ANI)