More regional representation will reflect the pan-India image of the government.
New Delhi: As Narendra Modi embarks upon his second innings as Prime Minister, about one third of his Cabinet is likely to have new faces. Sources said that the new Cabinet is likely to have more faces from East, Northeast and the southern states.
Modi, who has already submitted his resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind, is likely to take oath on 30 May for the second term. The Cabinet will be formed only after that.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources said that the new Cabinet will have more regional representation so that it reflects a pan-India image of the government. Of course, sufficient representations will be given to the MPs from the Hindi heartland.
A source said: “In the second term, the Prime Minister is free from any baggage. In the 2014 elections, he was under pressure to carry the legacy of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But this time, he has established himself as a popular leader and, therefore, he is free from the ‘Vajpayee legacy’ and in fact carrying his own ‘Modi legacy’.”
There is speculation about who will make it to the new team. Sources said that some of the existing ministers may not get another term and their talent will be utilised for the organisation. The BJP leadership has already started discussions with the RSS top brass on the probable list of ministers.
Sources said that while about one third of the Cabinet will have new faces, some of the old, experienced faces, from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, may be repeated, but with changed responsibilities. It is speculated that Piyush Goyal may be given the charge of the Ministry of Finance. Besides, other senior Ministers in Modi-I, like Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Suresh Prabhu will find place in the new Cabinet.
As per speculation, some of the new entrants in the Cabinet could be Amit Shah, Mukul Roy, Anurag Thakur, Arjun Munda, Chirag Paswan (LJP), Nityanand Rai, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh (JDU), Manoj Tiwari, and Basanta Kumar Panda. However, sources said, the party is divided over the issue of whether Amit Shah should be inducted into the Cabinet.
The new Cabinet is likely to have more representation from West Bengal, where the BJP has won 18 seats. In the last Cabinet, there were two Ministers from the state. Besides, more representation is likely to be given to MPs from Odisha and Karnataka. Among the alliance partners, Shiv Sena and JDU are likely to get three berths.
The BJP is likely to give more representation to Karnataka, which has sent 25 MPs. According to sources, Modi is also likely to induct MPs from Northeastern states in the Council of Ministers. The party has bagged nine seats in Assam and two seats each in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. Besides, the sole AIADMK MP from Tamil Nadu may also be inducted into the Council of Minister to give representation to Tamil Nadu, where the BJP has not been able to make its presence felt. The AIADMK is a part of the National Democratic Alliance.