New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may expand his Cabinet on April 08, as per reports on Thursday.
PDP MP Mehbooba Mufti and Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai are tipped to be inducted into the Union Cabinet.
Also, BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is MoS in the present Cabinet, may be elevated and Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla, the senior-most member of PM Modi’s Council of Ministers, is likely to be dropped.
Modi had expanded his Cabinet for the first time in November last year after assuming power in May 2014 wherein former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar and former Shiv Sainik Suresh Prabhu were given Defence and Railway portfolios respectively.
Total 21 new faces had been brought in at that time.
Some reshuffle had also taken place then with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley being given Information and Broadcasting, which was with Prakash Javadekar.
Javadekar was left with only Environment and Forests. And Cabinet Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had retained Communication and Information Techonogy while shedding Law.
Amonst others, Nirmala Sitaraman, MoS with independent charge of Commerce had shed MoS in Finance to newcomer Jayant Sinha, son of former union minister Yashwant Sinha.
Other new faces then were JP Nadda and Birender Singh who were given Health and Rural Development portfolios respectively.
The then health minister Harsh Vardhan was asked to take charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences while Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was divested of the Rural Development charge in favour of Singh.
The strength of the ministry had then gone up from 45 to 66, with 27 including PM holding Cabinet rank, 13 Ministers of State with independent charge and 26 Ministers of State.
(With inputs from agencies)