Cabinet reshuffle: Two ex-CMs are likely to be inducted into Modi's new Council of ministers; all you need to know

The Narendra Modi-led Central Government is going to assign ministries to new leaders as a part of the cabinet reshuffle. Ahead of the reshuffle, many including Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal have resigned from their positions.

It has been speculated that two ex-chief ministers will be joining the new Narendra Modi cabinet with this reshuffle. Also, it is for the first time since 2019 that the government is reshuffling the cabinet. The Modi government came to power again in 2019.

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While some of the prominent ministers have resigned ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, several new faces are expected to be seen in the new cabinet. Here are the details about the former chief ministers who are expected to join the new cabinet:

Sarbananda Sonowal: The BJP leader is a former Chief Minister of Assam. He was made the chief minister after the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam. In the first term of the Narendra Modi government, Sonowal was the Union Sports Minister. In the General Elections of 2014, he won the Lakhimpur constituency seat. In 2004, he was elected to the parliament from Dibrugarh when he was a member of Asom Gana Parishad.

Narayan Rane: He served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from February to October in the year 1999 when he was a member of the Shiv Sena. Rane joined the BJP in 2019, and is now one of the leading candidates to get a berth in the new Union Cabinet.

After exiting the Shiv Sena in 2005, Rane had joined the Congress. He was the Revenue Minister of Maharashtra in the Congress-NCP government led by then-chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

After his defeat from Sindhudurg constitnuency in the 2015 elections, Rane left Congress. In 2017, he created his own party named Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha (MSP), which was later merged with the BJP. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP in 2018

Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Arjun Munda were also former chief ministers who joined Modi's cabinet. Singh has served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh between 2000 and 2002 and is currently India's Defence Minister. On the other hand, Munda was made the Chief Minister of Jharkhand thrice between 2003 and 2013. He currently serves as the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs.

With inputs from PTI

July 07, 2021 at 05:21PM