N Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JDU are likely to get one cabinet berth and one Minister of State post each in the third Narendra Modi government as NDA leaders brainstorm on what the Modi 3.0 team would look like, top sources have said.
The decisions on the new cabinet were taken after a marathon 11-hour meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence yesterday. Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and the party’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh were present at the meeting.
Prime Minister Modi will take the oath of office at 7.15 pm today. Ahead of that, he will host a tea gathering at his residence for the would-be ministers, sources have said.
Outgoing Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Roads and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari are likely to retain their portfolios, the sources added.
Among the other allies, Chirag Paswan of LJP (Ram Vilas) HD Kumaraswamy of JDS, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal), Jayant Chaudhary of RLD and Jitan Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha are likely to get ministerial berths, the sources have said.
BJP’s leaders from the Northeast, Sarbananda Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju, may return as ministers, with some more names doing the rounds.
After two terms with absolute majority, the BJP has fallen short of the magic figure this time after it ended with 240 seats. This has catapulted Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar into the position of kingmakers. Both are coalition-era veterans are skilled in driving hard bargains, and the BJP’s tally has strengthened their position.
BJP sources, however, had told NDTV earlier that they won’t give away the four crucial portfolios in the cabinet committee on security — Home, Defence, Finance and External Affairs. Also, the expansion of road connectivity in the Modi 1.0 and Modi 2.0 earned much acclaim. And the man behind it, Nitin Gadkari, is likely to retain his position.
TDP, which won 16 seats, and JDU, which bagged 12, are learnt to have demanded plum central roles. The announcement of the Prime Minister Modi’s new team will show whether that has happened.
From the JDU, former party chief Rajiv Ranjan Singh, and Rajya Sabha MP and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur’s son Ram Nath Thakur may get the ministerial posts.
TDP MPs Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani and Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu are getting minister posts in Modi 3.0, party leader Jay Galla has announced on X.
