Prime Minister Narendra Modi could go for the second reshuffle of his council of ministers before the budget session of Parliament, a move that could see axes falling on “underperformers” and change in the portfolio of some others in his team.
This move will also be timed with the election of BJP’s national president, so that some of those freed from the responsibility in the government are adjusted in the party that currently has inexperienced leaders holding crucial assignments. The BJP is expected to complete the process for election of its president any time after January 14 — Makar Sankranti — that marks the end of inauspicious month. “A reshuffle is likely around month end or early next month,” a source told HT.
Party seniors dismiss the impending reshuffle was linked to party’s poor show in Bihar and insist that the move was aimed to give a new push to governance. However, the fate of some of the ministers from Bihar – total three Cabinet and five ministers of state – is being speculated, so is the possibility of new faces from states like Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and others. Uttarakhand has no representation in the Modi government.
The reshuffle seems to be necessitated following realisation within the party and the government to deal with perception about functioning of certain ministries that have not kept pace with Modi’s idea of governance.
By now, source say, the PM also has an assessment about every minister of his team and he was not happy with performance of some of them. One of its functionaries also claimed the RSS also wanted a change in the present team of national office bearers, whose lack of experience was exposed in the assembly elections.
A change in the team of BJP general secretaries is believed to be in the offing and a few of those who would be dropped from the council of ministers could be given this assignment.
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