New Delhi: In what is billed as a performance review before a likely cabinet reshuffle that could see changes in key ministries, Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi met his council of ministers on Thursday.
In the meeting, the ministers made presentations on work done in the two years since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government came to power.
According to highly placed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), “the portfolios of senior ministers may change and new ministers could be added in the revamp, which could be announced before July six, when the Prime Minister leaves for his Africa tour.”
Before the Parliament meets on July 18 for the Monsoon Session, new ministers are likely to be added to the cabinet and some may be given an upgrade.
Speculation over the possible changes intensified on Wednesday as PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah met for more than five hours. The changes will coincide with an organisational shake-up in BJP as Shah is also likely to reconstitute his team in the first week of July.
“The cabinet cannot exceed 83 ministers; currently, it has 66 members including PM Modi. A dozen cabinet ministers are from Uttar Pradesh (UP), which votes next year. The result from India’s most populous state UP will be used to measure the likely result of the next general election in 2019,” the sources added.
A few vacancies are likely to be filled. Junior ministers are to be added for states headed soon for elections like Punjab, Uttarakhand and UP. Some ministers are likely to swap departments.
PMO sources also revealed that the President’s House has been sounded out for a reshuffle ceremony.
The names of those who could be inducted in the Cabinet are — Member of Parliament (MP) from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath, Saharanpur MP Raghav Lakhanpal, BJP’s UP vice-president Shiv Pratap Shukla, Etah MP Rajveer Singh and Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel.
Also Modi is likely to drop ministers who have either crossed the 75-year age limit or are nearing it. Thus, Najma Heptulla, who holds the Minority Affairs portfolio could be dropped. She may be replaced by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who comes from UP.
Ministers of State Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan may be promoted to cabinet rank. Goal’s shift to a more high profile ministry has been speculated upon for months.
