Modi UPs his cabinet ante for 2019
NEW DELHI: After the BJP’s thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will firm up his Cabinet to steer the party to win the 2019 general elections. Some of the names slated for a Cabinet berth are Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Z Irani, Harsh Vardhan and Anurag Thakur.
In the backdrop of key roles played by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which handed over the ace to the BJP by distributing nearly two crore LPG connections to poor women, Pradhan is likely to get a Cabinet rank. Pradhan is the BJP’s top face in Odisha, where the saffron outfit registered a spectacular victory in the local body polls.
Sitharaman, MoS (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and for Finance and Corporate Affairs, is also headed for a Cabinet status without changing the portfolio.
Goyal will be shifted to the Ministry of Finance as the PM is happy with the MoS for handling of the ministries of Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines. “With energy being Modi’s core strategy for development and his thrust on renewable energy, it is likely that Goyal will be elevated to a Cabinet rank,” said a senior BJP functionary.
The BJP’s deep inroads into the Gandhi bastion in Amethi and Rae Bareli, which were handled by Union minister Irani in the UP polls, has turned her fortune after she was shunted out of the Ministry of Human Resources Development to Textile. She might stage a comeback with strong portfolio.
Harsh Vardhan, the lone minister in the Modi Cabinet from Delhi, who in the last reshuffle was shifted from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to Earth Sciences, is also being talked of getting a key portfolio.
Sacked BCCI chief Anurag Thakur is also likely to be made a junior minister to keep his father and former Himachal Pradesh CM Prem Kumar Dhumal in good humour ahead of the state polls this year.