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PM Modi Cabinet Reshuffle News Updates: Pratima Bhoumik first resident of Tripura to become Union minister in Independent India

PM Modi Cabinet Reshuffle LIVE News Updates: Bhoumik comes from a humble background, and practises farming. She holds a graduate degree in Bio-Science from Women''s College, Tripura University

FP Staff|Jul 08, 2021, 00:27:26 IST

PM Modi Cabinet Reshuffle LATEST News and Updates: Bhoumik comes from a humble background, and practises farming. She holds a graduate degree in Bio-Science from Women''s College, Tripura University.Rising from a humble background and winning the Lok Sabha polls seven times from Madhya Pradesh, BJP MP Virendra Kumar Khatik has become the new Social Justice and Empowerment minister as he staged a comeback in the Union Council of Ministers after a gap of two years.Paras, a politician with more than four decades of experience, has spent the larger part of his career under the shadow of his late brother and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.Among the 36 new faces in Prime Minister Narendra Modi' s council of ministers, eight are lawyers, four are doctors, two former IAS officers and four MBA degree holders, besides several engineers, making it an eclectic mix of professionals. Apart from addressing regional and community aspirations, the focus it seems has been on bringing in highly qualified members and those with experience of administration in states in an effort to reboot the government midway in its term.Piyush Goyal will keep Commerce; he will also hold Consumer and Food Welfare and Textiles.Ashwini Vaishnaw has been given the portfolio of railways, IT and communication. The 1994-batch IAS Officer from Odisha cadre, Vaishnaw rose to prominence through his meticulous service when the state was hit by a super cyclone in 1999. Back then, he spent his long shifts tracking the cyclone on US Navy website and followed it up by intimating Chief Secretary’s office on regular intervals.The 1994-batch IAS Officer from Odisha cadre, Vaishnaw rose to prominence through his meticulous service when the state was hit by a super cyclone in 1999. Back then, he spent his long shifts tracking the cyclone on US Navy website and followed it up by intimating Chief Secretary’s office on regular intervals.The average age of the new council of ministers has reduced to 58 years from 61 years previously following a cabinet reshuffle.As many as 43 ministers are likely to take oath in a major cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle drive on Wednesday evening sources said, after several Union ministers including Harsh Vardhan and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank resigned and a number of new entrants met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence here.President of India Ram Nath Kovind, as advised by Narendra Modi, has accepted the resignation of 12 members of the Council of Ministers, including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash JavadekarAhead of the reshuffle, Union Health minister Harsh Vardhan has resigned, reports News18. This comes at a time as India prepares for the third wave of COVID-19, while still reeling under the aftereffects of the second waveSources told News18 that three ministers have resigned hours before the reshuffle. They include: Labour minister Santosh Gangwar, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and MoS Women and Child Development Debasree ChaudhuriThe expanded Union Cabinet will have 12 Scheduled Castes minister, 8 Scheduled Tribes ministers and 27 ministers from Other Backward Classes (Yadav kurmi, darji, jat gujjar, khandayat, Bhandari, bairagi, thakur, koli vokkaliga, tulu gowda, mallah), according to CNN-News18.Five ministers will be from minorities including Muslim, Sikh, Christian and Buddhists.Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to effect the first reshuffle in his Council of Ministers on Wednesday since he assumed the charge for a second term, in what is tipped to be a "major shake-up" of the government as he looks to make it more representative with an eye on political and governance challenges.BJP leaders Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narayan Rane, all of whom are being seen as probables for induction as ministers in the Modi government, arrived in the national capital on Tuesday.In another pointer to the imminent Cabinet reshuffle, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot was appointed as Karnataka governor, causing yet another ministerial vacancy.JD(U) leader RCP Singh and LJP's Pashupati Kumar Paras, both of whom are expected to represent the BJP's allies in the government, also reached from Bihar.All of them remained tight-lipped to queries about their possibility of joining the government. Rane told reporters that he had not received any call about his joining the government.Leaders of the LJP faction headed by Paras said he had received a call from Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday but claimed that it was related to the birth anniversary of party founder Ram Vilas Paswan.The exercise comes against the backdrop of a massive review, which has stretched for weeks, undertaken by the BJP top brass of the works of Union ministers and the organisation against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.A BJP leader said the reshuffle is expected to be a "big shake-up" with Modi addressing political challenges, including the assembly polls in five states early next year, and governance issues.Representation of BJP MPs from West Bengal and the Northeast may go up, according to PTI.Another BJP ally All India Jharkhand Students' Union may also get a berth, sources said as the BJP looks to boost its partners' representation in the ministry after its old allies like Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal severed their ties with it.Ramadas Athavale, a junior minister, is the only BJP ally in the government as of now. The current strength of the Council of Ministers is 53, including Modi, and its maximum number can be 81.Against the massive review exercise within the central government and the party machinery, the prime minister may go for new faces with an eye on grooming younger leaders while also factoring in caste and regional balances.The reshuffles undertaken by Modi so far, all in his first term, have also seen some ministers being dropped or removed from key portfolios on account of their performance.The prime minister has also sprung surprises in the past by inducting those with apolitical background, like S Jaishankar and Hardeep Singh Puri, as ministers.Names of Bhupender Yadav, Anil Baluni, Sudhanshu Trivedi are doing the rounds while BJP MPs Sushil Modi, Ashwini Vaishnav and GVL Narasimha Rao are also being mentioned as probables.BJP general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh met party president JP Nadda in the evening. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje also met Santhosh.With Gehlot set to quit as an MP after becoming governor, his departure will also leave the key post of the leader of the House in Rajya Sabha vacant. It will leave one more position vacant in the BJP's Parliamentary Board, the party's apex body, where he is the only Dalit leader.

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