Cabinet Revamp: The Political Scene Is Extremely Hot In Delhi
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-07-07 10:43:00
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Ahead of the announcement of the new Union Council of ministers at 6 pm today, the political scene has heated up in the capital. There have been a spate of resignations from the cabinet and those expected to be sworn in are heading to the Prime Minister's residence for a meeting with Modi. The grapevine is buzzing with who got an A+ in the appraisal and is likely to be promoted and who failed to meet the test.
At last count, Education minister Ramesh Pokhariyal, Labour minister Santosh Gangwar, Chemicals and Fertilizers minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan were the big names who had resigned. Among the others, MoS Environment, Forests and Climate Change Babul Supriiyo, MoS Education Sanjay Dhotre, MoS Women & Child Development Debashree Chaudhari and MoS Health Ashwini Chaube had resigned.
This means that both the Health and the Education ministries are in for a complete revamp with the removal of both senior and junior ministers. The power-that-be perhaps did not like the handling of the pandemic situation by Dr Harsh Vardhan, especially in the second wave. Since the NDA has come out with a new education policy, Ramesh Pokhariyal was considered a light weight and the ministry might see a prominent name heading it for its proper implementation. The Labour ministry also came in for a lot of criticism for the migrants crisis and the Supreme Court also rapped it for not setting up a portal for registering unorganized sector and migrant workers.
The buzz is that Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri, MoS Finance Anurag Thakur, MoS Home Affairs G K Reddy, MoS Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju and MoS Panchayati Raj, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Parshottam Rupala are likely to be promoted for their good performance. It is almost certain that Sarbananda Sonowal, Sushil Modi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Meenakshi Lekhi, Narayan Rane, Bhupendra Yadav, Dilip Ghosh, Anupriya Patel and Pashupati Kumar Paras will join the cabinet.
