Cabinet reshuffle: PM Modi meets nine new ministers
According to reports nine union ministers, all from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will take oath on Sunday after meeting PM Modi.
Four ministers including Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal will be elevated to Cabinet rank, reports by NDTV said.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal could be the new Rail Minister, the channel reported citing sources.
Seven ministers have resigned from the Modi government since Thursday.
The list of ministers who had resigned includes Uma Bharti, Kalraj Mishra, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bandaru Dattatreya, Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Apart from them, few other ministers had also resigned in 2017 that led to a number of vacancies in Modi's cabinet.
Manohar Parrikar resigned as the Defence minister to become the Goa chief minister.
Venkaiah Naidu also resigned from the Information and Broadcasting ministry and the central government as he became the Vice President of India.
Presently, Arun Jaitley is handling the two portfolios, finance and defence ministries.
Speculations are rife that Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, might get an additional charge of Railway ministry after Suresh Prabhu offered to resign from his post following multiple train accidents in recent times. Earlier, Prabhu said he was asked by the PM Modi to wait.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjeev Balyan both said they were told to resign by the party and they unquestioningly did so.
"It's not my decision, it's the decision of the party, and I will follow (it)," Rudy told NDTV.
According to media reports, Rudy and Balyan are expected to be given key organisational roles in the BJP in preparation for the 2019 elections.
NDTV said the new-look council of ministers will include BJP leaders from states where elections will be held in the next few months, like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also take the flight to China on Sunday to attend the BRICS Summit 2017.
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