Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 6: Amidst heightened political activities as Coronavirus continued to show declining trend, reshuffle of governors and converging in the national capital of the aspirants for a cabinet berth, the prime minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce expansion of his cabinet on Wednesday evening, official sources indicated.
If happened, this would be the first expansion of his cabinet which has at least 28 vacant berths even if the prime minister want to restrict its size to the constitutional provision of 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha.
More women representatives, more people from the backward classes and smaller communities and representations to the younger generation would be the highlight of the expansion, the sources indicated. Special focus will be on each state and even region in states, the sources said.
Some of the probable ministers, who have arrived or are heading to Delhi, included Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)’s Pashupati Paras, Narayan Rane and Varun Gandhi.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit the Congress to join the BJP last year bringing down the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, was seen offering prayers at Ujjain’s famous Mahakal temple, hours before he took a flight to Delhi. “I was on a visit to Ujjain. After completing my visit here, I’m going to Delhi,” said Scindia.
Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who agreed to give up the Chief Minister’s post in Assam for Himanta Biswa Sarma after the BJP’s reelection, is also set to be a Union Minister.
So is Pashupati Paras, who led the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) coup in Bihar against ex-Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan. Sources close to him say he received a call from Home Minister Amit Shah and promptly took a flight to Delhi last evening.
Earlier during the day, the centre reshuffled several governors including opening a berth in the union cabinet by appointing as governor of Karnataka the union social justice minister Thawarchand Gehlot. His Rajya Sabha term was till April 2024, so a leader who is not a member of either house of parliament can be brought into the council of ministers and can be elected to the Rajya Sabha on Gehlot’s remaining term.
Dinesh Trivedi and Jitin Prasada, who switched to the BJP from the Trinamool and the Congress, fit the slot.
Others camping in Delhi are Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal), Pankaj Chowdhury, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Ramshankar Katheria, Lallan Singh and Rahul Kaswan.
The Union Cabinet, which can have 81 members, currently has 53 ministers. This means 28 ministers can be added. The expansion is likely to factor in polls in five states next year and the 2024 national election.
Ahead of Modi’s expected cabinet expansion, a different shuffle saw seven governors swapping states besides Gehlot (83) becoming a governor. “I have served the BJP for long. Whatever responsibility I was given, I did well,” Gehlot told reporters, denying any resentment at being moved to a ceremonial role.
“I am not upset with anyone. I will resign as a minister and also quit as BJP member.”
PS Sreedharan Pillai, the Governor of Mizoram, has been moved to Goa. Satyadev Narayan Arya, Haryana Governor, will shift to Tripura. Tripura Governor Ramesh Bais has been transferred to Jharkhand. Bandaru Dattatraya, the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, will take over as Governor of Haryana.
Hari Babu Kambhampati will be Mizoram Governor. Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel, a former BJP minister in Gujarat, will be Governor of Madhya Pradesh. There is no word about the other leader from Gujarat Vajubhai Vala, who was the governor of Karnataka and is being replaced by Gehlot.
Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has been named Governor of Himachal Pradesh.