For Modi 3.0, BJP has to accommodate demands of key allies TDP and JDU
Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met a battery of NDA leaders, many of whom are expected to get minister posts at the Centre. As the Prime Minister spoke, BJP veterans and leaders of NDA allies occupied the first row.
The leaders present at the meeting include Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dr S Jaishankar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Piyush Goyal, who were part of Modi 2.0. Others included BJP veteran Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, JDU leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh, HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, RLD's Jayant Chaudhary, JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan and Jitin Prasada.
A big difference between Modi 2.0 and Modi 3.0 is that the BJP's numbers in Lok Sabha have dropped below the majority mark and it now relies on NDA allies to cross the magic figure. This means that it needs to accommodate its allies in the council of ministers too.
N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU are likely to get at least one cabinet berth and one Minister of State post each in the third Narendra Modi government, 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.
Outgoing Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Roads and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari are likely to retain their portfolios, sources have said. Nirmala Sitharaman and Dr S Jaishankar, both Rajya Sabha MPs, are also likely to retain their finance and external affairs portfolios, respectively, they 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. Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena may be represented by Buldhana MP Prataprao Jadhav. Ramdas Athawale, Rajya Sabha MP and chief of BJP's long-term ally Republic Party of India (A), is also set to become minister and was at the meeting with the Prime Minister.
Pralhad Joshi, who handled the parliamentary affairs portfolio in Modi 2.0, former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Madhya Pradesh leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jyotiraditya Scindia may also get minister posts, the sources said. BJP's leaders from the Northeast, Sarbananda Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju, may return as ministers, with some more names doing the rounds. Among the other names doing the round are G Kishan Reddy, Shobha Karandlaje, BL Verma, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Nityanand Rai and Giriraj Singh.
The BJP's tally of 240, 32 short of the majority mark, has catapulted Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar into the position of kingmakers.
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.