CABINET RESHUFFLE BUZZ RISES AS PM MODI MEETS MINISTERS, BJP CHIEF TWICE IN 4 DAYS

The buzz of Union cabinet expansion or reshuffle gained momentum on Tuesday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, along with BJP president J.P. Nadda, twice in four days.

Both the meetings—one on Friday and another on Monday—were held at the Prime Minister›s 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence and lasted for nearly five hours each.

The Monday meeting, attended by Rajnath Singh, Gadkari, Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Minister of State V. Muraleedharan, besides others, was aimed at evaluating the work done by various ministries in the past two years, a party source said. Nadda was believed to be present in most of these meetings.

On Friday, PM Modi had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with Nadda and Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Jitender Singh.

Party insiders say that this could be an exercise before an expected cabinet expansion and reshuffle, but there has been no official word yet.

Besides evaluating the work done by the Union ministries, PM Modi also discussed some of the most pertinent issues of the day, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Cabinet ministers or ministers of state of agriculture, rural development, animal husbandry and fishing, tribal affairs, urban development, culture, statistics and programme implementation, civil aviation, railways, food and consumer affairs, jal shakti, petroleum, steel, external affairs and environment were among those called for the meetings, sources said.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah too held several meetings with BJP MPs in the capital. He had met MPs from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and some other states on Saturday and Sunday at his residence.