Goyal, Pradhan may get Cabinet ranks in upcoming reshuffle

Reshuffle will be undertaken keeping an eye on the forthcoming Assembly Elections in five states

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held their month-end review meeting on Wednesday evening and discussed the shape of the imminent reshuffle of the Union council of ministers.

The reshuffle will be done with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections to five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. These elections are due by early 2017. Performers in the Union council are set to be rewarded. New ministers will be added if the performance of the current seniors has been lacklustre.

The PM is also scheduled to take his month-end meeting to review the performance of his ministers on Thursday. The reshuffle is likely to take place before the PM leaves on a four-nation Africa tour on July 7. The monsoon session of Parliament begins on July 18.

Sources said ministers Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan were likely to be upgraded to the Cabinet rank. Goyal is a minister of state (with independent charge) handling the power, coal, new and renewable energy portfolio. Pradhan is a minister of state (independent charge) holding the oil and natural gas portfolio.

Apart from this, vacancies also have to be filled. A successor needs to be appointed to Sarbananda Sonowal, who resigned as the sports and youth affairs minister and is now the chief minister of Assam. Raosahib Patil Danve had quit as the minister of state for consumer affairs after being appointed the Maharashtra BJP unit chief, while minister of state for social justice and empowerment Vijay Sampla was earlier made the Punjab unit chief.

There is a possibility that portfolios of some ministers might be swapped. From Uttarakhand, senior party leader Bhagat Singh Koshiyari could get a ministerial berth. Uttar Pradesh could get more representation.

BJP ally Apna Dal Lok Sabha member Anupriya Patel and BJP's Rajbir Singh could get junior ministerships. Patel is a young non-Yadav OBC leader. Singh, a Lok Sabha MP, is the son of former UP chief minister and Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh. BJP Rajya Sabha member Bhupender Yadav is also slated to become a minister.

Rules mandate that the council of ministers cannot exceed 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha strength. The government can have a maximum of 82 members, and has, including the PM, 70.

Of these, a dozen Cabinet ministers are from Uttar Pradesh. Sources didn't dismiss the possibility that some ministers could be dropped from the council.

Modi, Shah and Jaitley hold review meetings at the end of each month and discuss issues concerning the party and the government. It was not known whether the issue of the recent statements by BJP Rajya Sabha functionary Subramanian Swamy came up for discussion.