Ahead of the Union Cabinet expansion on Wednesday evening, ministerial probables met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence here. This will be the first reshuffle in his Council of Ministers by Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019. The Prime Minister is expected to bring in young faces and give representation to various social groups and regions in the reshuffle.
Those meeting PM Modi at his residence included BJP's Narayan Rane, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Shobha Karandlaje, Sunita Duggal, Meenakshi Lekhi, Bharati Pawar, Shantanu Thakur and Kapil Patil, JD(U)'s R C P Singh, LJP's Pashupati Paras and Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel.
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Some ministers of state, including G Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala and Anurag Thakur, were also there, and they may be elevated, sources said. BJP president JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were also present there.
The expansion exercise is scheduled to be held at 6 pm at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Sources said that a total of 43 leaders will take oath. They said that the new Council of Ministers will have four former Chief Ministers, 18 former state ministers, 39 former MLAs, 23 MPs who have been elected for three or more terms. The Union Cabinet can have 81 ministers.
Going by the caste representation, the Cabinet will have 5 ministers from the minority communities, (1 Muslim, 1 Sikh, 2 Buddhists, 1 Christian). There will be 27 OBC ministers in the new cabinet of which five will be of Cabinet rank. Out of 8 ST ministers, there will be 3 Cabinet rank. From the SC background, a total of 12 ministers will join the government of which two will be of the Cabinet rank. There will be 11 women ministers in the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, Union Ministers Santosh Gangwar (Labour), Ramesh Pokhriyal (Education), Debasree Chaudhuri (MoS for Women and Child Development Ministry), Sadananda Gowda (Chemicals and Fertilizers) have reigned. Earlier on Tuesday, Union Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot was appointed as Governor of Karnataka. Gehlot held the portfolio of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.
The much-awaited expansion comes close on the heels of the completion of the Modi’s government’s seven years in office. Currently, there are 21 Cabinet ministers, nine Ministers with Independent charge, and 23 Ministers of State in the Council of Ministers.
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