Cabinet Reshuffle
NDA leaders including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Pashupati Paras in Delhi ahead of PM Modi's Cabinet rejig
New Delhi/IBNS: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet reshuffle, NDA leaders likely to get a position, have started gathering in Delhi, including BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and Janata Dal leader RCP Singh, said media reports.
According to an NDTV report, Scindia visited Ujjain's famous Mahakal temple today in the morning and offered prayers before he took a flight to Delhi. He is likely to be rewarded for his role in toppling the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh and bringing BJP back to the helm of the state.
Former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who agreed to forego the post for Himanta Biswa Sarma on BJP leadership's direction, is also likely to be accommodated as a Union Minister, said the report.
Pashupati Paras, who led the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) coup in Bihar against ex-Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag Paswan, is also likely to be included in the cabinet. The NDTV report said he was seen shopping for a kurta and dodged questions on invitation from Delhi, adding that sources close to him say he received a call from Home Minister Amit Shah and immediately took a flight to Delhi last evening.
A vacancy has been created because of the elevation of Union Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot as Governor of Karnataka. His Rajya Sabha tenure is due to end in April 2024, enabling the government to pick up a leader who is not a member of any house of the parliament.
Dinesh Trivedi and Jitin Prasada, who defected from TMC and Congress, respectively, to BJP, are two such leaders who fit the slot, the report stated.
Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal), Pankaj Chowdhury, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Ramshankar Katheria, Varun Gandhi, Lallan Singh and Rahul Kaswan are other leaders in Delhi for the oath-taking ceremony, informed the report.
The Union Cabinet can have 81 members and currently there are 53 ministers, allowing the Narendra Modi government to have 28 more ministers on board.
According to the report, Prime Minister Narendra Modi carried out a month-long review of the performance of the ministers, especially during the second wave of Covid-19, which witnessed the government grappling in many aspects of managing the unprecedented health emergency.
Reportedly, many ministers may lose the charge of the extra ministries they have been holding while some may be rewarded with an upgrade in their portfolio.
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