Reddy to Thakur: Ministers likely to be promoted today

New Delhi, July 07: Several union ministers are likely to be promoted in the Cabinet reshuffle today.

G Kishan Reddy, Anurag Thakur, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandavaya and Purushottam Rupala are likely to be promoted. Rijiju is the minister of state for sports while Puri is in charge of aviation.

Reddy is a junior minister for home affairs, while Rupala is minister of state for Panchayati Raj.
Currently there are 52 ministers and Council can have 81 members. This would mean that 29 ministers can be added.

Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal, D Sadananda Gowda, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Rattan Lal Kataria, Santosh Gangwar have resigned from the Cabinet. The new council of ministers could also include four new ministers from Karnataka. Shobha Karandlaje, Rajeev Chandrashekar, Bhagwant Khuba and A Narayanaswamy are likely to get the MoS rank.

At least 43 ministers are likely to take oath today. Sources tell OneIndia that the Union Council will include several professionals such as engineers, lawyers, doctors and civil servants. The Cabinet is expected to have 18 former ministers, 39 MLAs and 4 ex-chief ministers.

Earlier an invite was sent out stating that the Cabinet expansion will take place at 6 pm today. There would also be a regional focus, with leaders being inducted from Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh and Awadh, Konkan and Marathwada in Maharashtra, Mednipur in Bengal apart from five ministers form North East. In addition to this there is also a likelihood that there would be 11 women ministers in the government.