Current affairs

PM Modi's mind game: Another Union Minister resigns ahead of the cabinet reshuffle!

By alagu, 07 July, 2021
Narendra Modi, Union Cabinet, BJP

Hours ahead of a significant expansion of the Union Cabinet, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has moved his resignation, becoming the third Union Minister to demit office on Wednesday. India will be witnessing the first cabinet reshuffle and expansion on Wednesday for the first time since Prime Minister Modi had formed his government for the second consecutive term in 2019. 

Harsh Vardhan was also serving as the Union Minister for Science and Technology and for Earth Sciences. According to reports, Vardhan's resignation has come at a time when the Modi regime has been surfaced with massive flak for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. As there are growing expectations over Modi's mind game in the cabinet expansion, it is unclear whether Vardhan has resigned under the grounds of non-performance or a big reward is waiting for him. 

Recently, the Prime Minister has held meetings with the cabinet ministers to assess their performances in the past two years. The ministers were asked to make presentations about their achievements and their works since the government was formed in May 2019. has decided to release the non-performing ministers from the cabinet and would pump in young blood to revitalize his governance. 

Being the first major reshuffle since forming the second consecutive government in 2019, the nation is keenly watching the developments of who will win Modi's eyes and become a part of his cabinet. The expansion is also been aimed at relaxing the shoulders of some of the current ministers who are taking care of two or three ministries. On Wednesday, two other Union Ministers - Ramesh Pokhriyal and Santhosh Gangwar had also tendered their resignations and both of them had cited health reasons. Some reports had said that Union Minister Sadananda Gowda had also resigned his post.

Ramesh Pokhriyal was the Union Education Minister and Gangwar was Union Labor Minister. The reports say that Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri, and Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo had also resigned from the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. It has been reported that the expansion exercise is scheduled to be held at 6 pm at Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

According to ANI, 43 leaders will take oath as Union Ministers in the cabinet expansion. Earlier, the Prime Minister has tabled hectic meetings with the leaders close to his circle to give final touches to the cabinet expansion. Ahead of the cabinet expansion, ministerial probables had met the Prime Minister at his official residence - 7, Lok Kalyan Marg in Delhi. The meeting was also attended by Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and BJP National President JP Nadda. 

Some of the ministerial probables who met the Prime Minister include  Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Sunita Duggal, Bharati Pawar, Kapil Patel, and Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal party. The reports say that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's close aide RCP Singh will also win a berth in the Central ministry and the Prime Minister will also give the representation to the new Union Territory of Ladakh by promoting the region's sole MP Jamyang Namgyal as a Central minister.

Some of the current ministers of state including G Kishan Reddy (Home) and Anurag Thakur (Finance) will be promoted to cabinet rank. Union Ministers RK Singh, Mansukh Mandaviya, and Hardeep Singh Puri, who are holding the independent charges, will also be promoted to cabinet rank. The Prime Minister has been planning to build the cabinet expansion with the representation of the Dalit community and a younger team as the new faces will be below the age of 55. The visuals from Delhi had shown hectic drive-ins and outs as several BJP leaders have reached and left the Prime Minister's residence and the final pack of the cabinet expansion will be unveiled at around 6 pm on Wednesday. 

 

You may also like

Comments