Modi 2.0 Cabinet to go for a major rejig on July 7; performance, alliance on radar

The reshuffle is likely to indicate the government's resolve to strengthen the economy, ensure gender and social justice

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek to send out a message of his government's intent to strengthen the economy and infrastructure post-pandemic and reach out to women, OBCs, Dalits, and youths in a big way in the first reshuffle of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

Ahead of the rejig, 73-year-old Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment was moved out of the Modi Cabinet and appointed as Governor of Karnataka amid a buzz that some more ministers, aging or nonperforming, can be shifted to alternative roles as the government seeks to shape up a "new look Cabinet", a party insider claimed.

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BJP leaders such as former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narayan Rane, who are seen as the ones likely to be inducted as Cabinet ministers in the Modi government, arrived in the national capital on Tuesday.

JDU's RCP Singh and Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh and BJP's Shantanu Thakur, Nisith Pramanik from West Bengal are also seen as leaders who could get a Cabinet berth.

Scindia, who delivered Madhya Pradesh back to the BJP after he defected from Congress last year, Tuesday cut short his tour of the Malwa-Nimar region in Madhya Pradesh and took off for Delhi from the Indore airport after taking darshan of the famous Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain.

As per indications, politics, pandemic and performance will be the PPP for this mega ministerial rejig, which could see nearly 20 new inductions, aimed at giving a message of economic recovery post-Covid-19 shock and energising the cadres after the big debacle in the West Bengal Assembly polls and pepping them up for election preparations for six states in upcoming months.

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An attempt to strengthen the Ministries of Health, Information and Broadcasting and Finance could be taken up. Though there is unlikely to be any major change in the top four ministries at the Raisina Hills — Defence, Home, Finance, and External Affairs — this time.

The last Cabinet reshuffle in 2017 during Modi's first tenure had seen a second woman in the Raisina Hill's top four ministries when Nirmala Sitharaman was elevated and hence becoming the second woman member in the powerful Cabinet Committee on Security along with the then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Ahead of the reshuffle at 6 pm tomorrow, the Prime Minister will have a meeting of the Union Cabinet in the morning. On June 30, he had held a five-hour-long meeting with his entire Council of Ministers.

BJP general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh on Tuesday had a long meeting with party chief J P Nadda at his residence where they held deliberations in the backdrop of some differences with allies on portfolios. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje also met Santhosh.

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The BJP has lost a number of allies including its old ones like Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal and hence the focus is to win allies back. While Nitish Kumar-led JDU, which had refused to join the government in 2019, is learnt to have demanded four portfolios, two Cabinet rank and two MoS, as against the BJP's offer of one Cabinet and one MoS, former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son voiced his opposition to the plan to induct his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in the Union Cabinet days after Paras in a coup of sorts replaced Chirag with the backing of four other party MPs as Leader of Lok Sabha and subsequently also as LJP chief.

Chirag urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi that nobody from the breakaway faction should be taken in the ministry from the LJP quota otherwise they would go to court. He said Paras or somebody else siding with him can be made a minister as an Independent, but not as a member of the LJP with which they are no longer associated.

Keeping an eye on Uttar Pradesh polls, the BJP also has plans to induct in the Council of Ministers Apna Dal (S) leader and former Union Minister Anupirya Patel, a leader from the Kurmi community, the second most dominant OBC group in Uttar Pradesh. A Brahmin face from Uttar Pradesh and a Jat leader could be inducted.

The reshuffle could see the BJP bringing in some new faces from Mahadalilts and Extremely Backward castes from the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, which have been the bedrock of its strength in the Hindi belt and an increase in representation of West Bengal and North East.

Currently, there are two technocrats — S Jaishankar and Hardeep Singh Puri — in the Modi Cabinet. Indications are that their numbers will grow as the government is keen to ensure delivery on its promises before the 2022 state polls.

Of late, the government has been bringing a lot of professionals in decision making with MBA and IIT degrees, something which may reflect in this Cabinet reshuffle.

2022 is a year Modi has frequently mentioned in his speeches and has made a number of commitments linking that timeline when India completes 75 years of Independence and hence this reshuffle will have a lot of symbolism to show how the Modi Cabinet is different from all other Cabinets in the past.