PM Modi to expand cabinet tomorrow, uncertainty hangs over names

READ HERE: Cabinet reshuffle confirmed for Sunday, 10 am: Here’s everything you need to know

Uncertainty of participation of allies

Earlier on Saturday, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar said he had no information about the reshuffle and the information his party had was only from the media. He said, “We have no information, no talks about it. We got information only from media.”

Uncertainty also hovered over the participation of BJP’s other ally, Shiv Sena. Party chief, Uddhav Thackeray, said, “Got to know about Cabinet Reshuffle from media. Everyone worries about what happens at the Centre but I care about Mumbai.”

READ HERE: Cabinet reshuffle: A list of who all entered, exited Modi govt since 2014

Additional portfolio charges

The reshuffle is likely to relieve the at least four ministers who are holding additional charges after vacancies arose in the cabinet between March and July this year due to several reasons. In March, Manohar Parrikar resigned as defence minister and later became the chief minister of Goa. Arun Jaitley, who was holding the portfolio of Finance and Corporate Affairs, was given the additional charge of Defence.

In May, Anil Dave, the then Environment and Forest minister, passed away. Science and Technology minister Harsh Vardhan was given the additional charge of the Environment Ministry. In July, M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the union cabinet after being picked up as the NDA nominee for the post of vice president of India. His Housing and Urban Affairs portfolio went to Narendra Singh Tomar as additional charge. Tomar is the minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Naidu’s Information and Broadcasting portfolio went to Smriti Irani, the minister for Textiles. Besides, Ravi Shankar Prasad holds two portfolios- Law and Justice and Information-Technology.

Resignations

Ahead of the reshuffle scheduled for Sunday, Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises, confirmed that he submitted his resignation from the cabinet. “I met with Modi ji and said that I’m ready. He said ‘Okay’ and I gave my resignation. I had to give a written resignation then but I submitted it yesterday,” Mishra was quoted saying by ANI. He said that he had offered to resign from the cabinet earlier too, before the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Friday also resigned from his post ahead of the Union Cabinet’s reshuffle. His resignation came a day after junior ministers- Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey put down their papers.

HRD Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey was named as the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief by Shah. Pandey, therefore, is set to exit the Narendra Modi government. Rudy was quick to make his exit public by changing his profile introduction on his Twitter handle — from Minister to Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. “It is a decision of the party and I am a soldier of the party. Whatever I am today is because of the party,” Rudy told The Indian Express Friday on his exit from the government. “I am ready for any assignment that the party assigns me,” he said.

Late night meeting

On Friday evening a meeting took place at Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence setting off another cycle of speculation over the possibility of a new face in the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). While BJP president Amit Shah was in Vrindavan for an RSS coordination meeting, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari met at Rajnath Singh’s residence.

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