Modi cabinet reshuffle: Nine new ministers to be inducted on Sunday

Reports say that Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will retain his portfolio.

Nine new ministers would be inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet on Sunday.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Satya Pal Singh, Alphons Kannanthanam, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shiv Paratap Shukla, Virendra Kumar, Anantkumar Hegde, Raj Kumar Singh will reportedly take oath tomorrow.

The nine will be sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at 10 am on Sunday, and their portfolios are likely to be announced later in the day.

It earlier reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah will hold a meeting on Saturday evening to finalise the cabinet list. It is, however, not clear if the meeting would take place.

Reports say that Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will retain his portfolio. NDTV, while quoting sources, said that Modi is "very happy" with the performance of Gadkari. The BJP is said to have considered moving Gadkari to Railways Ministry, but wasn't keen to take the responsibility.

"It is PM Modi's prerogative who should be given what responsibility. He is the one to decide on tomorrow's (Cabinet reshuffle)," Gadkari told the media on Saturday.

JD (U) may not join the cabinet as was earlier reported. Nitish Kumar, in fact, said he had no information about the cabinet reshuffle.

"We have no information, no talks about it. We got information only from media," news agency ANI quoted Nitish as saying when asked about cabinet reshuffle.

It was earlier being speculated that JD (U), which joined the NDA recently, may get two cabinet berths.

OneIndia News