Cabinet rejig on 3rd September, the day on which PM departs for China

There are reports that the next cabinet rejig is expected on 3rd of September, Sunday after the president returns from his foreign tour and the prime minister Narendra Modi leaves for China to participate in the BRICS summit where he will participate in BRICS summit  till 6th of September and thereafter head for Myanmar and stay there until 7th before returning back to India.

Several ministries in the union cabinet are being shared by ministers already overburdened with the works of their own ministries as one minister has even expired and another sent to a state as chief minister and the third elevated as Vice President of Inda. Meanwhile, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy has sent his resignation letter to the prime minister and several other ministers numbering six have also submitted their resignations to the party high command after meeting the BJP Chief.

These ministers may perhaps be asked to serve the organisation in view of the 2019 elections. Prominent names of those whose resignations have been submitted apart from Rajiv Prasad Rudy are Uma Bharti, Radhamohan Singh, Badaru Duttatrey, Kalaraj Mishra and several others. After the sad demise of the environment minister Anil Kumar Dave, the charge of the ministry of environment was given to Science and Technology minister Harsh Vardhan where as the additional charge of Ministry of Defence, after Manohar Parriker’s shifting to Goa was given to already over burdened finance minister  Arun Jaitley.

Similarly the Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani was given the additional charge of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting earlier handled by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu now the vice president of India whereas the charge of his other ministry of Works and Housing was given to Rural Development minister Narendra Singh Tomar. If reliable sources are to be believed while the new incumbents may be brought in to handle the charges of the above ministries from Janata Dal (U) Nitish Kumar segment, AIADMK, Shiv Sena and ministers like Kalraj Mishra etc having crossed 75 years may be elevated as governor. At least 7 slots of governors are vacant at present and five of them are likely to be filled. Several new faces are being inducted in this expansion and many are to be promoted.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu who had already submitted his resignation to prime minister Modi may be shifted to some powerful ministry probably Environment and Union Roads, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari may be given the Railways, where as some non-performing ministers may be shown the door. Some of the states which have not been adequately represented like Karnataka and  Uttarakhand may get more representation as state ministers where as some good performing state ministers may get a promotion to the cabinet rank. Karnataka is likely to go for assembly polls next year. Our prime minister,  BJP chief Amit Shah and RSS leadership are holding mutual discussions to ensure that this being the final rejig gets maximum and adequate representation in view of the 2019 general elections. Several ministers are learned to have met the national BJP chief Amit Shah today.

The need for the cabinet rejig and expansion arose primarily due to the division in JD(U) as Sharad Yadav faction has already started luring some of the MP’s of Nitish group and if two of them are not aligned they may perhaps defect. Moreover the work of ministries was suffering in view of the over burdening of some ministers with additional charge and several decisions were held up as well.

SUNIL NEGI