New Delhi, July 4: The most awaited activity, expansion of the Union Cabinet is all set to take place tomorrow morning, a top government official said today. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is to conduct the reshuffling of his council of ministers and induct nine new faces which would be the first major exercise since he came to power in May, 2014.
Principal Spokesperson and Director General of Press Information Bureau, Frank Norhona tweeted, “Cabinet Expansion tomorrow at 11am but he did not delve deep into it.
There were talks of cabinet expansion for the past several months amid speculation and that a dozen names were put down for induction and promotion. It also been said that at least nine new faces may find a place in the ministerial council while the other three are likely to be promoted to the Cabinet. There is also a vacancy in the Council of Ministers after Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal became the Chief Minister of Assam. Ministers having independent charge, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are also likely to head for promotion. But no decision had been yet taken on the promotion of Nirmala Sitharaman, who currently holds independent charge of industries and commerce portfolios.
The new are likely to be Arjun Ram Meghwal of Rajasthan, P.P. Chaudhary of Rajasthan, Anupriya Patel of U.P., Anil Desai of Maharashtra, Ajay Tamta of Uttarakhand, Mahendra Nath Pandey of U.P., Krishna Raj of U.P., S.S. Ahluwalia of West Bengal and Puroshottam Rupala of Gujarat. This time instead of the new members getting calls from the PM’s office, it was BJP President, Amit Shah who informed them about their likely induction into the Cabinet. There has been speculation of a cabinet reshuffle since the Prime Minister met his council of ministers here on June 30 and reviewed important projects and works of various ministries, Modi had earlier met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President, Amit Shah and Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley to discuss on this pertaining issue.
The Prime Minister is likely to keep regional interests, especially in view of the upcoming elections. The reshuffle will be followed by an organizational revamp of the BJP.
