Cabinet reshuffle: Who is in, who is out; who will be rewarded with a higher rank

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 7

As many as 43 ministers are likely to take oath as the Union Cabinet is all set for a reshuffle here on Wednesday evening.

Likely candidates are: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane, Bhupendra Yadav, Pashupati Paras (LJP), Anupriya Patel, Kapil Patil, Meenakshi Lekhi, Shobha Karandlaje, Rahul Kasava, Ashwani Vaishnav, Shantanu Thakur, Vinod Sonkar, Rajkumar Ranjan, BL Mishra, Hina Gavit, Ajay Bhatt, Preetam Munde, RCP Singh (JDU) and three others from the party.

Those expected to be rewarded with a higher rank are: Anurag Thakur, G Kishan Reddy, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Puri, RK Singh and Purushottam Rupala.

Those likely to be dropped are: Thawarchand Gehlot, who has been appointed as the Karnataka Governor, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Sadanand Gowda, Debashree Chowdhury and Santosh Gangwar.

Haryana minister Rattan Lal Kataria and Minister of State Sanjay Dhorte are also believed to have been dropped, say sources.

So far, 12 ministers have been dropped/resigned from the Council of Ministers.

Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo has also resigned. A popular face, Supriyo could not even manage to win his seat in the recent West Bengal elections. This is believed to be the main reason he was asked to put in his papers, say sources.

Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Raosaheb Dadarao Danve, Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, have also resigned.

Four new ministers expected from West Bengal are Santanu Thakur, John Barla, Nishit Pramanik and Subhash Sarkar.