Cabinet: Why several ministers resigned, how many ministers PM Modi can have

As many as 43 leaders will take oath in the first Union Cabinet reshuffle and expansion on Wednesday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power for a second term in May 2019, writes ETV Bharat Dy NEWS Editor Krishnanand Tripathy.

New Delhi:Just before the much talked about overhaul of the Union cabinet, several senior ministers reportedly tendered their resignation. The list includes several cabinet ministers such as Education Minister Ramesh Pakhariyal Nishank, Chemical and Fertilisers Minister DV Sadanand Gowda, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, but among all, the most surprising resignation is of Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. In addition to these ministers, minister of state for women and child development, Debasree Chaudhuri also resigned. There are reports that some other members of the Union council of ministers may also join the list.

A day before the Cabinet expansion, Thawar Chand Gehlot, the minister for social justice and empowerment and the leader of the house in the Rajya Sabha was appointed as new governor of Karnataka. As per a press statement issued from the President House, total 12 ministers have resigned. These are DV Sadanand Gowda, Ravi Shankar Prasaad, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Rattan Lal Kataria, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Debasree Chaudhuri.

Given the scale of resignations that is in public domain, now it is clear that it is not a mere expansion of the Union cabinet but a complete overhaul of Team Modi where several crucial portfolios, including education, health, labour, environment, law and justice, ministers have been dropped from the Cabinet.

Elevation of some junior ministers

There is strong speculation that the rank of at least four ministers will be upgraded to either cabinet rank or they will be given independent charge of the ministries assigned to them. These are Anurag Thakur, Mansukh Mandavia, G Kishen Reddy and Parshottam Rupala. In order to turn the tide, Prime Minister Modi is completely revamping his team and, according to sources, he personally reviewed the performance of each of the minister with home minister Amit Shah and BL Santosh, the BJP’s national general secretary and in charge of organisational issues.

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PM Modi’s second term has a difficult start as the government had to grapple with a slowing economy since the start of the tenure and later it is required to deal with the Covid-19 global pandemic that killed more than 4 lakh people and resulted in contraction of GDP by over 7% in the last fiscal. It is speculated that 43 members will be inducted in the first ever overhaul of the Union cabinet in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term. This number also includes those ministers whose responsibilities will be changes or their status will be upgraded to Cabinet ministers.

But such a large change was not possible without dropping some members from the Council of ministers as there is a constitutional limit on the number of maximum members for the Union council of minister.

Constitutional bar on the number of ministers

While there are 21 cabinet ministers, 9 ministers of state with independent charge and 23 ministers of state. In all there are 54 members in the council of ministers, including Prime Minister Modi. According to Article 72 of Indian Constitution, the strength of members in the council of ministers, including Prime Minister, cannot exceed 15% of the strength of Lok Sabha.

The seventeenth Lok Sabha has strength of 540 members as two seats for Anglo-Indian community are lying vacant.

As per the 91st Constitutional amendment, there can be a maximum 81 members in the council of ministers in the seventeenth Lok Sabha, including the Prime Minister. As per the rule, it was still possible for Prime Minister Modi to induct 28 new members without dropping existing colleagues. However, given the resignation of health, education and labour ministers among others, it is clear that it is not expansion of cabinet but a complete overhaul where some members have been dropped and others will be rewarded.
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