New Delhi: Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi is set to give a message of continuity in his new term by inducting most key faces of his outgoing government in the Council of Ministers to be sworn on Sunday evening. Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, who held home, defence, finance and external affairs ministries respectively in the outgoing government, besides its other senior members such as Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Hardeep Singh Puri will be part of the new government.
Over 65 ministers are likely to take oath, going by the visual of the meeting Modi held with his likely council of ministers. One surprise omission seems to be Anurag Thakur, the outgoing information and broadcasting minister who won from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur constituency again. He was not among the leaders invited to meet Modi. The PM-designate customarily meets new ministers ahead of their swearing-in ceremony.
Outgoing ministers Smriti Irani, who suffered a big defeat in Amethi, and Parshottam Rupala, who won but whose remarks on Rajput community during the polls had triggered a massive row, are also unlikely to find a place in the new government. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who lost to Shashi Tharoor in a close contest, is also likely to be missing from the new government.
However, a big majority of the outgoing ministers are set to continue, according to the visuals of the meeting shared by official sources. BJP leaders Manohar Lal Khattar, C R Paatil, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Ravneet Singh Bittu will be among the new faces in the Union Council of Ministers. The fresh faces in the government are mostly from BJP allies.
Allies like TDP's Ram Mohan Naidu and Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, JD(U)'s Lalan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur, Shiv Sena's Prataprao Jadhav besides other National Democratic Alliance members such as Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, H D Kumaraswamy, Jayant Chaudhary, Ramdas Athawale, and Anupriya Patel will be taking oath.
BJP's Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Pralhad Joshi, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jitendra Singh, S P S Baghel, Annapurna Devi, Virendra Kumar, Pankaj Chaudhary, Shobha Karandlaje, Krishna Pal Gurjar and L Murugan, all outgoing ministers, will also be taking oath, sources said.
BJP's G Kishan Reddy, Sukanta Majumdar, Rao Inderjit Singh, Nityanand Rai and Bhagirath Choudhary are also tipped to be part of the new government. BJP MPs Jitin Prasada from Uttar Pradesh and Raksha Khadse from Maharashtra are also expected to be part of the new government. Khadse confirmed to the media that she has received a call to be part of the government.
There is also speculation within the BJP that its national president J P Nadda, whose extended tenure will end by this month and who was among the leaders meeting Modi, may also be brought back in the government. However, he may also be present at the meeting as the head of the ruling party. He was a member of the first Modi government before being relieved and taking over the charge of the party's organisation in 2019.
Bittu, the grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, had lost the Lok Sabha election but is likely to be inducted due to his profile as the BJP continues its bid to deepen its footprint in Punjab. BJP MP from Ranchi Sanjay Seth and its Odisha MP Jual Oram, a former Union minister, are also expected to take oath.
