New Delhi: Hours before Narendra Modi is sworn in as the Prime Minister along with his council of minsters, there is now some idea emerging of how his Cabinet will look.
Of the big four ministries that form the Cabinet Committee for Security or CCS along with the PM, Arun Jaitley is tipped to be Finance Minister, BJP president Rajnath Singh is expected to get the Home Ministry as Mr Modi’s number 2 in government and Sushma Swaraj could get External Affairs.
Mr Modi, said sources, could keep the Defence portfolio for the time being or then give additional charge to Mr Jaitley.
A list of ministers was sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning and Mr Modi hosted his ministers-to-be at tea. Sources said he is expected to have a 44-member council of ministers, the smallest ever. The outgoing Manmohan Singh government had over 70 ministers.
Other ministers of Cabinet rank will include Nitin Gadkari in an important portfolio, possibly a combined Transport ministry that could even include the Railways and Civil Aviation, sources said.
Smriti Irani, 38, who took on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in a spirited contest in Amethi in the general election, is tipped to be a Cabinet minister, as is prominent leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dr Harsh Vardhan from Delhi.
Venkaiah Naidu, like Mr Gadkari a former party president, is expected to be in the Union Cabinet as are Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar from Karnataka, Uma Bharti and Maneka Gandhi, who have been central ministers before, Najma Heptulla, Maharashtra leader Gopinath Munde, UP leader Kalraj Mishra, Jual Oram from Odisha, Narendra Singh Tomar, Radha Mohan Singh and Thawar Chand Gehlot.
From among the BJP’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance, Bihar leader Ramvilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party or LJP is expected to be a Cabinet Minister, as is Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena, Ashok Gajapati Raju of the Telugu Desam Party and Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Akali Dal.
Ministers with Independent charge could include former Army chief General VK Singh, Rao Inderjit Singh, the Gurgaon MP who crossed over from the Congress to the BJP, Santosh Gangwar, Sripad Naik, Dhramendra Pradhan, Assam BJP chief Sarbananda Sonowal, Prakash Javadekar and Jitendra Singh.
On the list of Ministers with independent charge are likely to be two prominent and articulate BJP leaders who have fronted debates for the party in the run-up to the elections – Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, a party spokesperson.
Those expected to be ministers of state in Mr Modi’s government are Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, Pon Radhakrishnan, who is the BJP’s only MP from Tamil Nadu and Kirron Kher, who beat the Congress’ Pawan Bansal from Chandigarh.
Last night Mr Modi promised that he would head a lean Cabinet with a focus on “minimum government and maximum governance”. He is expected to merge and restructure several ministries.
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Hours before Narendra Modi is sworn in as the Prime Minister along with his council of minsters, there is now some idea emerging of how his Cabinet will be shaped.
A list was sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning and Mr Modi hosted his ministers-to-be at tea. Sources said Mr Modi is expected to have a 44-member council of ministers, the smallest ever. The outgoing Manmohan Singh government had over 70 ministers.
Of the big four ministries that form the Cabinet Committee for Security or CCS along with the PM, Arun Jaitley is tipped to be Finance Minister, BJP president Rajnath Singh is expected to get the Home Ministry, Sushma Swaraj could get External Affairs and Mr Modi, said sources, could keep the Defence portfolio.
Other ministers of Cabinet rank will include Nitin Gadkari in an important portfolio, possibly a combined Transport ministry that could even include the Railways, sources said.
Smriti Irani, 38, who took on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in a spirited contest in Amethi in the general election, is tipped to be a Cabinet minister, as is prominent leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dr Harsh Vardhan from Delhi.
Venkaiah Naidu, like Mr Gadkari a former party president, is expected to be in the Union Cabinet as are Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar from Karnataka, Uma Bharti and Maneka Gandhi, who have been central ministers before, Najma Heptulla, Maharashtra leader Gopinath Munde, UP leader Kalraj Mishra, Jual Oram from Odisha, Narendra Singh Tomar, Radha Mohan Singh and Thawar Chand Gehlot.
From among the BJP’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance, Bihar leader Ramvilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party or LJP is expected to be a Cabinet Minister, as is Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena, Ashok Gajapati Raju of the Telugu Desam Party and Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Akali Dal.
Ministers with Independent charge could include former Army chief General VK Singh, Rao Inderjit Singh, the Gurgaon MP who crossed over from the Congress to the BJP, Santosh Gangwar, Sripad Naik, Dhramendra Pradhan, Assam BJP chief Sarbananda Sonowal, Prakash Javadekar and Jitendra Singh.
On the list of Ministers with independent charge are likely to be two prominent and articulate BJP leaders who have fronted debates for the party in the run-up to the elections – Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, a party spokesperson.
Those expected to be ministers of state in Mr Modi’s government are Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, Pon Radhakrishnan, who is the BJP’s only MP from Tamil Nadu and Kirron Kher, who beat the Congress’ Pawan Bansal from Chandigarh.
Last night Mr Modi promised that he would head a lean Cabinet with a focus on “minimum government and maximum governance”. He is expected to merge and restructure several ministries.
