New Delhi: New 21 faces will be joining the Council of Ministers with the big reshuffle of Modi 2.0, which is likely to be complete by the evening today. Ahead of the announcement of the new Union Ministers, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar have resigned.
As per reports, the names have been arrived at after much distillation and confabulations, looking at the 2022 election scenario with five states, including Uttar Pradesh headed for polls.
This will also be the "youngest-ever" cabinet, with a record representation of OBCs, SCs and STs and more women picks. The new cabinet, to be announced at 6 pm today, will have a special focus on the representation of 'soshit, pidit, vanchhit and adivasi' (underprivileged and tribal communities), sources told CNN-News18.
The reshuffle is likely to be dominated by Bihar with Janata Dal-United making a comeback followed by BJP nominations from Bengal.
The prominent names include Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sushil Modi, Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh who will be part of the massive reshuffle of the Union Cabinet.
The new Ministers in the Modi government who are likely to be sworn in include former Congress heavyweight from Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia who is now in the BJP, former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi.
At the time of writing, the following had gone to the PM's residence
1. Jyotiraditya Scindia,
2. Sarbananda Sonowal
3. Bhupender Yadav
4. Anurag Thakur
5. Meenakshi Lekhi
6. Anupriya Patel
7. Ajay Bhatt
8. Shobha Karandjale
9. Sunita Duggal
10.Pritam Munde
11.Santanu Thakur
12.Narayan Rane
13.Kapil Patil
14.Pashupati Nath Paras
15.R.C.P. Singh
16.G.Krishan Reddy
BJP spokesperson and minority face Syed Zafar Islam is also tipped for a central government role. Also on the list are former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane.
Alliance partner and Apna Dal chief, Anupriya Patel from Uttar Pradesh are among the probable. Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal who impressed with his Parliament speech is also being considered.
The reshuffle is being necessitated by some vacancies caused due to deaths like Ram Vilas Paswan and exits of Akali Dal and Shiv Sena. Upcoming elections in UP is a factor in the reshuffle and also the need to add some heft to the government with the entry of Bhupender Yadav, a strong organisational face.
Former Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari is also among the probable. Along with Ghosh, Bengal MP, Locket Chatterjee and Shantanu Thakur are part of the contingent.
The JDU is likely to get 3-4 berths from Bihar as the BJP has accepted Nitish Kumar's demand. The JDU will be represented by Lalan Singh, RCP Singh, Ramnath Thakur and Dileshwar Kamait and Santosh Kushwaha. Amidst the significant churn in Bihar, Pasupati Paras who rebelled against Chirag Paswan is getting a central berth.
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, MP from Manipur, former Union Minister from Karnataka, Ramesh Jigajinagi are among the probable.
Uttar Pradesh will be represented by several faces, including Sakaldeep Rajbhar, Rajya Sabha member and Ajay Mishra, MP from Kheri.