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Union Cabinet expansion likely on Sunday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to expand his council of ministers on Sunday with top BJP leaders maintaining that at least ten new faces, including Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar are expected to be inducted.
- 6 new faces including Goa CM Parrikar likely
- Many Ministers have multiple portfolios
- Winter session of Parliament from Nov 24
- Modi leaving on 6-nation tour on Nov 11
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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to expand his council of ministers on Sunday with top BJP leaders maintaining that at least ten new faces, including Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar are expected to be inducted.
Though BJP top brass officially remained tight-lipped on the issue, party sources said Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, its prominent Muslim face; its youth wing president Anurag Thakur besides Parrikar are being considered for ministerial berths.
Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party is a BJP ally, also indicated that an expansion of the cabinet is on the cards. "You will know details about the Cabinet expansion in two days," said Naidu, who walked off the stage for a few minutes during an interview at the World Economic Forum's India summit here to attend a phone call but refused to identify the caller. Some new faces from Bihar and Rajasthan besides a few from BJP allies like Shiv Sena and TDP are expected to find place in the government, sources indicated.
Meanwhile, Modi's visit to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the morning to attend a Gurbani recital to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak also triggered speculation that it was in the context of a possible reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers.
However, PMO sources said the visit was purely for the Gurbani programme being held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan and which was also attended by Vice-President Hamid Ansari among others. There are currently 22 Cabinet members and same number of ministers of state, including 10 with independent charge. Many BJP leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Prakash Javadekar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal have charge of multiple ministries. And the exercise is aimed to streamline the portfolios.
Shiv Sena’s Suresh Prabhu sounded
New Delhi: Speculation is rife that Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu may be inducted in the Union Cabinet.
As per reports doing the rounds on Thursday, the BJP-led NDA government is keen to have Prabhu in the Cabinet.
However, some reports also suggested that the Shiv Sena had declined such an offer and said that the leader could be sent to Parliament till 2016. It is being said that they have instead put forward Anil Desai's name.
Prabhu was a former minister in the Vajpayee government and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. At the moment he is heading a government panel on power revamp called Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy.
