Tag: Cabinet expansion

  • Jharkhand Congress Chief on dissatisfaction among party MLAs over State Cabinet expansion: ‘We are aware, will discuss it’ – The Economic Times Video

    Ranchi (Jharkhand): After meeting a group of Jharkhand Congress MLAs after their swearing-in ceremony for cabinet expansion in Jharkhand. State Congress President Rajesh Thakur on Feb 17 said that MLAs were unhappy and had gone to the swearing-in ceremony at request. Rajesh Thakur said, “They (Congress MLAs) had expressed their feelings even before the oath-taking ceremony. They were unhappy, they had gone to the swearing-in ceremony at our request. We are aware of their feelings. We will discuss it.” Congress MLA Anup Singh said, “We are 12 people in total. We have shared our concern with our PCC president through a letter. Our demand is the same as before. Attending the oath ceremony does not mean that we have forgotten our demands. We are only trying to let our party know about our concerns.”

  • No women in 20-member cabinet as Maharashtra CM Shinde expands 41-day-old ministry

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday expanded his two-member ministry 41 days after taking oath as the Chief Minister by inducting 18 ministers, nine each from his rebel Shiv Sena group and the BJP.

    The list doesn’t include a woman, a move being panned by politicians and women’s rights activists.

    “Maharashtra was the first state in the country to give reservation for women. When 50 per cent of India’s population is of women, they are not represented in the state cabinet,” NCP MP Supriya Sule said. “This shows the BJP’s mindset,” she added.

    Eighteen MLAs, including state BJP president Chandrakant Patil, were sworn in as cabinet ministers at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai on Tuesday. The strength of Maharashtra ministry has now gone up to 20, less than half the maximum allowed strength of 43.

    Governor B S Koshyari administered the oath of office to the ministers. On June 30, Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM.

    The new BJP ministers are Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Vijaykumar Gavit, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Ravindra Chavan, Atul Save and Mangalprabhat Lodha.

    From the Shinde group, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar and Shambhuraj Desai were sworn in as ministers. No minister of state was sworn in today. There will be another ministry expansion later, an aide of Shinde said.

    While BJP has inducted Lodha, who hails from Mumbai, the Shinde group hasn’t included any legislator from the financial capital, where municipal corporation elections are slated later this year.

    The new ministers include Shinde group MLA Sanjay Rathod, who was the forest minister when Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister, and was forced to resign after BJP leaders blamed him for a woman’s suicide.

    State BJP vice president Chitra Wagh protested Rathod’s induction into the Cabinet.

    “It is very unfortunate that former minister Sanjay Rathod, who caused the woman’s death, has been given the post of minister again. I will continue my fight against Rathod even though he has become a minister again,” she said.

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday expanded his two-member ministry 41 days after taking oath as the Chief Minister by inducting 18 ministers, nine each from his rebel Shiv Sena group and the BJP.

    The list doesn’t include a woman, a move being panned by politicians and women’s rights activists.

    “Maharashtra was the first state in the country to give reservation for women. When 50 per cent of India’s population is of women, they are not represented in the state cabinet,” NCP MP Supriya Sule said. “This shows the BJP’s mindset,” she added.

    Eighteen MLAs, including state BJP president Chandrakant Patil, were sworn in as cabinet ministers at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai on Tuesday. The strength of Maharashtra ministry has now gone up to 20, less than half the maximum allowed strength of 43.

    Governor B S Koshyari administered the oath of office to the ministers. On June 30, Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM.

    The new BJP ministers are Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Vijaykumar Gavit, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Ravindra Chavan, Atul Save and Mangalprabhat Lodha.

    From the Shinde group, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sanjay Rathod, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar and Shambhuraj Desai were sworn in as ministers. No minister of state was sworn in today. There will be another ministry expansion later, an aide of Shinde said.

    While BJP has inducted Lodha, who hails from Mumbai, the Shinde group hasn’t included any legislator from the financial capital, where municipal corporation elections are slated later this year.

    The new ministers include Shinde group MLA Sanjay Rathod, who was the forest minister when Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister, and was forced to resign after BJP leaders blamed him for a woman’s suicide.

    State BJP vice president Chitra Wagh protested Rathod’s induction into the Cabinet.

    “It is very unfortunate that former minister Sanjay Rathod, who caused the woman’s death, has been given the post of minister again. I will continue my fight against Rathod even though he has become a minister again,” she said.

  • Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai in Delhi to consult BJP chief JP Nadda​ on cabinet expansion

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is in the national capital to hold consultations with the BJP central leadership on the expansion of his cabinet, sources said on Monday. The chief minister, who reached the national capital late on Sunday night, is scheduled to meet BJP president JP Nadda during the day, they said.

    On Sunday, before leaving for Delhi, Bommai had said the cabinet expansion exercise may not take a week’s time and a direction from the leadership was likely by Monday. Bommai took oath as the chief minister on July 28 after the resignation of his predecessor BS Yediyurappa on July 26.

    He is the lone Cabinet member in the government. Meanwhile, many ministerial aspirants have called on Bommai and raised the pitch for a cabinet berth.

  • Cabinet expansion cannot cover up government’s wrong policies: BSP chief Mayawati

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: A day after the Union Cabinet expansion, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday said the exercise would neither cover up the wrong policies, activities and other shortcomings of the government nor divert the attention of people from it.

    2. साथ ही, यूपी की भाजपा सरकार भी यहाँ जनहित व जनकल्याण के सभी मोर्चे पर अधिकांश विफल ही रही है और कोरोना प्रकोप में तो इनकी नीति व कार्यशैली तथा इनके अन्य हवा-हवाई वादों व घोषणाओं आदि से यहाँ की समस्त जनता काफी दुःखी है।
    — Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 8, 2021

    “The elaborate expansion and reshuffle done in the Union Cabinet can neither cover up the wrong policies, activities and other shortcomings of the government, nor can it divert the people’s attention from it. The people of the country are waiting for a change at the right time,” she said in tweets in Hindi.

    “At the same time, the BJP government in UP has also failed on all fronts of public interest and public welfare. All the people are very sad due to its policies, working style, tall promises and announcements during the Covid outbreak,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

    In a major overhaul, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted several new members in his cabinet and dropped 12 ministers, including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

  • Seven ministers from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh; OBC & SC get lion’s share

    By Express News Service
    LUCKNOW:  With an eye on the 2022 Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted a maximum seven new ministers from Uttar Pradesh in the Union Council of Ministers.  Knowing well that the non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Scheduled Castes (SC) had played an integral role in BJP’s historic 312 seats in 2017, the Wednesday’s Cabinet expansion kept in mind addressing the caste arithmetic of UP, as barring one new minister, Ajay Kumar Mishra ‘Teni,’ all others hailed from the OBC or the SC segment.

    With the Patel (Kurmi) caste being second only to Yadavs in numbers in the OBC, two new inductees Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Singh Patel are from the same caste, which has traditionally aligned with the BJP. The return of Anupriya (daughter of powerful Kurmi community leader late Sonelal Patel) in Team Modi is being seen as a timely effort by the BJP to keep Apna Dal (S) in good humour.

    The third OBC leader to make to the Union Cabinet is BL Verma. He belongs to the influential Lodh Rajput community which has a strong presence in central UP and Braj region.The three new SC inductees are Kaushal Kishore (who is considered close to Amit Shah), five-time MPs Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and SPS Baghel.

    Through the re-induction of powerful SC leader Dr Virender Kumar (presently the third time MP from Tikamgarh) of Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region, the BJP has tried to strike a chord with the SC voters of adjoining Bundelkhand region of UP also.

    Keeping Brahmin vote in mind, the NDA inducted two-time MP from Lakhimpur Kheri seat Ajay Kumar Mishra ‘Teni.’The Cabinet expansion, however, didn’t have any new minister from the Jat caste which is at the forefront of the nationwide farmers agitation. 

    NISHAD Party gets raw deal from CentreApart from the Jat community which did not find place in the revamped Union Council of Ministers, another notable exception was BJP ally NISHAD Party, whose president Sanjay Nishad has recently tried to play pressure politics with the BJP, demanding that he be declared deputy chief minister face of the ruling alliance while going into the 2022 polls.

  • No power to bargain, JD-U settles for single Cabinet berth

    Express News Service
    PATNA:  Finally, Bihar’s ruling JD-U has joined the Union Cabinet, although the party has to be content with only one berth. It has 16 MPs. LJP got one berth. The BJP already had one. The JD-U had to accept what it was offered in 2019.

    Then also, the name of Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh was dropped, hours before the oath-taking ceremony. As a result, JD-U refused to join the cabinet of ministers. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced not to join the Central cabinet, without getting ‘proportional representation’.

    But this time, BJP accorded equal political weightage to JD-U and the spilt group of five MPs of LJP. The JD-U had bargained for at least two cabinet berths and one state minister,  in order to accommodate Rajiv Lalan and another. But efforts to convince BJP went in vain.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the new faces and asked them to continue with whatever number of berths are given to their parties. 

    In Patna, political analyst AK Mishra said: “The real factor that made JD-U accept the offer of only one berth was its reduced political stature in the state after the Assembly elections. Had the JD-U come out stronger, it would not have agreed to only one berth”. The state’s principal opposition RJD attacked Nitish Kumar, accusing him of being unable to rise above caste considerations.

  • Modi’s new Cabinet: Elections, caste equations weigh heavy in rejig

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW :  Electoral imperatives as well as the BJP’s desire to shed its image as a primarily upper-caste party appeared to weigh heavy in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted several faces belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities.

    Given that non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Scheduled Castes had played a significant role in the BJP winning 312 of Uttar Pradesh’s 403 Assembly seats in 2017, Wednesday’s Cabinet expansion kept in mind the caste arithmetic of the state.

    The state also bagged the maximum number of berths with seven of its MPs taking the oath. Of them, six are either from OBCs or Scheduled Caste. Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel belong to the Kurmi community, categorised as OBCs. B L Verma is a Lodh-Rajput, also an OBC. Kaushal Kishore, an eloquent MP considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, belongs to the OBC Pasi caste.

    The other two from backward communities are S P S Baghel and Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma. They belong to the SC and Kori OBC communities respectively. The only upper-caste member from UP is Ajay Kumar, a Brahmin.

    Similar social engineering has been attempted in the representation from Maharashtra. Of the four new ministers from the state, only Narayan Rane, a Maratha, belongs to the upper caste. Among the other three, Bhagwat Karad is a Wanjari OBC, Kapil Patil belongs to Agri OBC community and Bharti Pawar is from a Scheduled Tribe.

    From Madhya Pradesh, the party picked Virendra Kumar a seven-term parliamentarian who’s from the  Khatik OBC community, which constitutes 15-16% of the state’s population. The humiliation in the West Bengal Assembly elections did not stop the party from inducting two ministers from the state, both from the backward communities. While John Barla is an ST from the tea community in north Bengal, Shantanu Thakur is a Matua, an OBC who are Hindu refugees from Bangladesh.

    In Gujarat, Patidar community members Puroshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandavia were elevated to the Cabinet rank while Mahendrabhai Munjpara and Darshana Jardosh were made ministers of state. (With Sudhir Suryawanshi and Pranab Mondal)

  • Leaders reaching Delhi, appointment of guvs, new ministry: Loaded signals for big Cabinet expansion

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for the expansion of the council of ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government on Tuesday unveiling a new Ministry of Cooperatives along with the appointment of Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot as Karnataka Governor. 

    The Prime Minister’s Office has been individually calling the selected candidates to join the council of ministers over phone, with some already reaching the national capital on Tuesday. Gehlot has been suitably accommodated as he was the Scheduled Caste face of the NDA. After a back and forth parleys, a grumbling JD (U) appears to have decided to join the government.

    The JD (U) was earlier seeking parity with the BJP’s Bihar representation in the Union ministry by insisting on two Cabinet and two MoS berths. The other Bihar element in the ministry is expected to be Pashupati Paras, who captured the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) from under the nose of Chirag Paswan. 

    Late Tuesday evening, the government informed that it has created the new ministry to strengthen the co-op movement. The government had earlier created the Ministry of Jal Shakti. “This ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country,” the government said.

    The reshuffle is likely to involve a good number of ministers of state ranks besides filling a few Cabinet berths. Among those who would most probably make it are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal and Narayan Rane. Apart from allies like the JD (U) and the LJP, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal is likely to get a berth. BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal from Ladakh is also seen as a ministerial hopeful. 

    However, speculation on Shiv Sena returning to the NDA ended with party chief Uddhav Thackeray finally saying there cannot be any accord with the BJP. Caste arithmetic matters in the scheme of things, as the BJP pointed out that of the eight women Governors and Lt Governors it has appointed since 2014, five belong to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.

    That math will be part of the larger strategy for Wednesday’s ministerial expansion so to balance social equations and state representations with an eye on elections next year. With the prime minister having clearly shown his preference for professionals in his team like S Jaishankar and Hardeep Puri, a surprise entry from outside politics isn’t ruled out. From the JD (U), Rajeev Ranjan Singh and R C P Singh are seen to be in the reckoning for the berths. 

    A few of the ministers are likely to be dropped following their performance appraisal, while key loyalists of Union home minister Amit Shah, including Anil Jain and Bhupender Yadav, are being seen as hopefuls to join the government. Portfolios like Commerce, Industry, Food and Consumer Affairs, Food processing, Social Justice, Civil Aviation, I&B are up for grabs, while changing ministries of a few ministers is also not ruled out. 

  • Leaders reaching Delhi, apointment of governors, new ministry: Loaded signals for big Cabinet expansion

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for the expansion of the council of ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government on Tuesday unveiling a new Ministry of Cooperatives along with the appointment of Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot as Karnataka Governor. 

    The Prime Minister’s Office has been individually calling the selected candidates to join the council of ministers over phone, with some already reaching the national capital on Tuesday. Gehlot has been suitably accommodated as he was the Scheduled Caste face of the NDA. After a back and forth parleys, a grumbling JD (U) appears to have decided to join the government.

    The JD (U) was earlier seeking parity with the BJP’s Bihar representation in the Union ministry by insisting on two Cabinet and two MoS berths. The other Bihar element in the ministry is expected to be Pashupati Paras, who captured the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) from under the nose of Chirag Paswan. 

    Late Tuesday evening, the government informed that it has created the new ministry to strengthen the co-op movement. The government had earlier created the Ministry of Jal Shakti. “This ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country,” the government said.

    The reshuffle is likely to involve a good number of ministers of state ranks besides filling a few Cabinet berths. Among those who would most probably make it are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal and Narayan Rane. Apart from allies like the JD (U) and the LJP, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal is likely to get a berth. BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal from Ladakh is also seen as a ministerial hopeful. 

    However, speculation on Shiv Sena returning to the NDA ended with party chief Uddhav Thackeray finally saying there cannot be any accord with the BJP. Caste arithmetic matters in the scheme of things, as the BJP pointed out that of the eight women Governors and Lt Governors it has appointed since 2014, five belong to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.

    That math will be part of the larger strategy for Wednesday’s ministerial expansion so to balance social equations and state representations with an eye on elections next year. With the prime minister having clearly shown his preference for professionals in his team like S Jaishankar and Hardeep Puri, a surprise entry from outside politics isn’t ruled out. From the JD (U), Rajeev Ranjan Singh and R C P Singh are seen to be in the reckoning for the berths. 

    A few of the ministers are likely to be dropped following their performance appraisal, while key loyalists of Union home minister Amit Shah, including Anil Jain and Bhupender Yadav, are being seen as hopefuls to join the government. Portfolios like Commerce, Industry, Food and Consumer Affairs, Food processing, Social Justice, Civil Aviation, I&B are up for grabs, while changing ministries of a few ministers is also not ruled out. 

  • PM Meets Amit Shah, BJP Chief Amid Buzz Over Possible Cabinet Expansion

    Narendra Modi is reviewing the performance of select ministries, especially in the second wave of Covid, in a series of meetings beginning Thursday, sources say amid reports of a possible cabinet expansion.

    A meeting on Friday evening between the BJP’s Big Three — PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda – signals big changes ahead based on the assessment of how the ministers performed. Some ministers were also present at today’s meeting.

    There is also talk of a major social scheme to be announced in the next few days as the party preps for important elections next year, including in Uttar Pradesh.

    The Prime Minister held a similar meeting for well over five hours yesterday at his 7 Lok Kalyan Marg home with seven ministries and assessed the work done by them during the April-May Covid crisis, when the scale of virus cases and deaths were seen to have caught the government unprepared. Dharmendra Pradhan, Prakash Javadekar and Hardeep Puri were among the Union Ministers he met.

    Sources said it is an annual exercise that usually takes place before the anniversary of the Modi government but was delayed this time due to the pandemic.

    Since it is a performance review, it has fueled speculation of a cabinet expansion, said to be long overdue. There are around half a dozen ministers who hold more than one ministry.

    The Prime Minister can have up to 79 ministers, which means there are more than two dozen vacancies in the Union cabinet.

    The review meeting comes days after the Prime Minister announced that the centre would take back control of vaccination from states and provide vaccines free of charge to all above 18 from June 21.

    Yesterday’s meeting, sources say, began at 5 pm and continued till 10 in the night. Mr Nadda was also present.

    The ministries made brief presentations on various decisions taken by them, sources in the government said.

    Under review were Petroleum Ministry, Steel Ministry, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Heavy Industries and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change.