Union Cabinet reshuffle to have UP tilt, 9 new faces likely

New Delhi: An expansion and reshuffle of the Modi government will take place on Tuesday with a Dalit tilt in the exercise possibly eyeing the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh next year.
Prominent among the names doing the rounds for induction include Anupriya Patel, an OBC Lok Sabha member belonging to ally Apna Dal, and a number of BJP leaders, who met party chief Amit Shah on Monday.
The BJP names include S. S. Ahluwalia (Lok Sabha), Vijay Goel (Rajya Sabha), P. P. Chaudhary, a Dalit MP from Bikaner in Rajasthan. Sources said Ajay Tamta, a Dalit Lok Sabha member from Uttarakhand, which will go to the polls with Uttar Pradesh early next year, Purushottam Rupala, a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, Ramdas Athawale, a RPI MP from Maharashtra (Rajya Sabha), Mahendra Nath Pandey, an MP from UP, are among the likely inclusions. Krishan Raj, another BJP Dalit MP from UP, can also make the cut. Some ministers can also be dropped, party sources said adding top ministers are unlikely to be disturbed. Frank Noronha, Principal spokesperson of the government, tweeted on Monday that the cabinet expansion will take place tomorrow at 11am. There has been talk of the expansion for the past several weeks amid speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could induct new faces from Uttar Pradesh with an eye on polls. There is also a vacancy in the Council of Ministers after Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal became the chief minister of Assam.
This will be the second expansion of the Cabinet after Modi came to power in May, 2014. The first expansion had occurred in November 2014. There are currently 64 Union ministers, including the Prime Minister, and there can be a maximum of 82 of them under a constitutional bar.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said BJP central leadership has not held in any discussion with him on the Union Cabinet expansion and that his party will not stand on anybody's doors seeking favours. "People from various political parties are joining the Shiv Sena. I have been busy attending to them and thus have not got the time to discuss the Cabinet expansion. One thing is clear. The Sena will never stand helplessly on anybody's doors asking for anything," Thackeray said here.
"First they (the BJP) were offering us Minister of State, then said we will get a Cabinet berth. We say whatever we get, we should get with respect. We will not beg for anything. There have been no discussions with Delhi on Cabinet expansion," he said.
Thackeray said getting ministerial berths was a secondary issue for him and that he would put forward his views if discussions were to take place. Referring to the Maharashtra Cabinet expansion, which according to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis would happen before he leaves for his Russia tour early next week, the Sena chief said, "I and the CM have only had superficial discussions. I will announce the intricacies once a detailed discussion happens."