More mins quit before reshuffle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will effect a reshuffle of his council of ministers on Sunday.

Sources say over a dozen new faces could join the ministry, even as eight to nine ministers, including Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Kalraj Mishra, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattareya, Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan and Faggan Singh Kulaste were learnt to have put in their papers on the asking of the Prime Minister.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Ministers of State Giriraj Singh and Mahendra Nath Pandey had resigned yesterday. Some more resignations are expected to make way for new faces.

Among the possible new entrants to the ministry are BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prahlad Patel, Suresh Angadi, Satyapal Singh and Prahlad Joshi.

The reshuffle, the third such exercise since Modi took over in May 2014, is expected to take into account four major factors – performance, regional balance, coming assembly elections in several states and, most importantly, the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

After the swearing in, the Prime Minister is also expected to change portfolios of some existing ministers, with Arun Jaitley likely to shed Defence in order to concentrate on …read more