File photo: Giriraj Singh
While Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's expected shift to Delhi remains the headline of the Narendra Modi cabinet expansion likely on Sunday, other names of probable new minsters suggest a balancing act of regional aspirations and electoral considerations.
Bihar, where state elections will be held next year, could get two more central minsters in BJP lawmakers Giriraj Singh and Ramkirpal Yadav.
Giriraj Singh, a former Bihar minister is most known for his controversial comments while campaigning for the national elections; he was booked for a hate speech at that time for saying "those who oppose Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan."
Mr Singh hails from the state's powerful Bhumihar community. The other two BJP Parliamentarians from the same community - CP Thakur and Bhola Prasad Singh - are over 75 years old.
Ramkirpal Yadav is the BJP's new import from Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal. He defeated Lalu Yadav's daughter Misa Bharti in Pataliputra earlier this year and was widely expected to be given a ministerial berth when the Modi government was sworn-in in May. The BJP has been making attempts to wean away the powerful Yadav vote from Lalu.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP spokesman for a long time and one of the party's most prominent Muslim faces, could also be made a minister, sources said, the only one from Uttar Pradesh, which already has a lion's share of central ministers.
Rajasthan, which handed the BJP 25 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the national elections, has had only one minister so far and could get two more. Olympic Silver medalist Rajyawardhan Rathore may be a contender, though today he officially denied receiving an invitation to the PM's tea on Sunday ahead of the oath-taking ceremony for his ministers.
Two new ministers are expected to be drawn from Maharashtra, one of them from NDA ally Shiv Sena.
Another ally, the Telugu Desam Party is also likely to get a second minister.
From Jharkhand, where elections will be held next month, MP Jayant Sinha, son of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, might be inducted into the cabinet.
The defence portfolio is currently held as an additional charge by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. More than six Modi ministers hold more than one portfolio and some rationalisation is expected in a reshuffle.
Some ministers could be promoted and some could even be dropped, sources have said.