BJP to keep key posts in Modi 3.0; Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh likely to retain portfolios: Reports
New Delhi/IBNS: N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU are likely to get at least one cabinet berth and one Minister of State post each in the Narendra Modi 3.0 government as NDA leaders brainstormed in a meeting ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, media reports said.
The decisions on the new cabinet were taken after a marathon 11-hour meeting at the Prime Minister's residence on Saturday.
Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and the party's national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh were present at the meeting.
Prime Minister Modi will take the oath of office at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 7.15 pm on Sunday. Ahead of that, he is hosting a tea gathering at his residence for the would-be ministers.
India has invited several leaders from neighbouring countries to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi, who is set to become the Prime Minister for a third consecutive term on Sunday.
Outgoing Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Roads and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari are likely to retain their portfolios. Nirmala Sitharaman and Dr S Jaishankar, both Rajya Sabha MPs, will also retain their portfolios, media reports quoting sources said.
Among the other allies, Chirag Paswan of LJP (Ram Vilas) HD Kumaraswamy of JDS, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal), Jayant Chaudhary of RLD and Jitan Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha are likely to get ministerial berths.
Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena may be represented by Buldhana MP Prataprao Jadhav. Ramdas Athawale, Rajya Sabha MP and chief of BJP's long-term ally Republic Party of India (A), is also set to become minister.
Pralhad Joshi, who handled the parliamentary affairs portfolio in Modi 2.0, former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Madhya Pradesh leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jyotiraditya Scindia may also get minister posts, NDTV quoting sources reported.
BJP's leaders from the Northeast, Sarbananda Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju, may return as ministers. Among the other names doing the round are G Kishan Reddy, Shobha Karandlaje, BL Verma, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Nityanand Rai and Giriraj Singh.
Modi will be the second politician after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to become Prime Minister for the third consecutive term.
However, unlike his previous two terms, Modi this time required the support of his allies to form a government as the BJP stopped at 240, 32 short of the majority mark (272).
This has catapulted Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar into the position of kingmakers.
The TDP (16 seats), JDU (12 seats), Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena (7 seats) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (5 seats) have emerged as the kingmakers.
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