TDP leader confirms two ministerial posts, other allies to also join govt

Telugu Desam Party leader Ram Mohan Naidu will be sworn in as a Cabinet minister and another party MP Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani as a minister of state in the Modi 3.0 government, a party leader confirmed.

TDP leader and industrialist Jayadev Galla posted congratulatory messages to the two leaders amid indications that other allies such as Ram Nath Thakur and Lalan Singh of the JD(U), Chirag Paswan of the LJP (R), Jitan Ram Manjhi of HAM(S), Jayant Chaudhary of the RLD are being considered as ministers.

An aide of Manjhi claimed that he has been informed that he will be inducted in the government.

Sources have said that allies will get representation in the government in which the BJP is expected to keep key portfolios like home, defence, finance and external affairs.

BJP bigwigs like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Jyotiraditya Scindia are being seen as natural choices for Cabinet berths besides S Jaishankar.

However, there has been no official comment from the BJP on its ministerial choices.

Former chief ministers like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai and Sarbananda Sonowal are among other obvious contenders in an exercise in which the BJP will have to factor in its shock losses in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to recover its ground.

Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi is expected to meet his ministerial choices before the oath-taking ceremony in the evening.