Pranab likely to be next foreign minister

India may get a new foreign minister soon after Diwali, and in all likelihood it will be Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

According to top sources in the government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approached Mukherjee for the second time with the offer.

"At a meeting attended by the PM, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Mukherjee on Friday, the matter of a new foreign minister was brought up and the PM asked Mukherjee to consider the offer," the sources said.

Mukherjee had been asked the same before he went to attend the United Nation's General Assembly (UNGA) in September.

The PM reportedly said that he felt the need for a foreign minister but had been unable to come up with any suitable names for the job.

"He told Mukherjee that with the Indo-US nuclear deal being delayed in the US Senate, he needed to appoint someone, but that he could only think of Mukherjee's name," the sources said.

"The government is handicapped by the fact that there will be no Congress Rajya Sabha seat in the next six months and the new foreign minister will have to be appointed from within the Cabinet itself," the sources said. Mukherjee, who had expressed his unwillingness to take up the job earlier, was ambiguous during this meeting.

He is reported to have said that he would think the matter over before giving his opinion.

Sources, however, indicate that barring a late entrant into the situation, Mukherjee may relent this time.

If Mukherjee does take up the job, then it may lead to a reshuffle in the top four ministries in the Cabinet, as the defence minister's job will be up for grabs. It is expected that all this will be done after Diwali.