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| Baig tipped to be inducted in Modi's Cabinet "within April" | | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 31: Peoples Democratic Party's Lok Sabha member from North Kashmir and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig is tipped to be inducted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, later this month.
Well placed political sources disclosed to Early Times on Tuesday that Mr Baig would be sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Modi government any time
before the start of second half of the Budget Session scheduled on April 20. In the second Cabinet reshuffle within his first year in office, Modi would drop some non-performers and pick up some new faces, a few from the NDA allies like Shiv Sena and PDP.
The upcoming session is set to be crucial as the government has to take up the Land Acquisition Bill in the Rajya Sabha that faced stiff opposition in the first half of the Budget Session.
The expansion and reshuffle exercise of the Cabinet will take place after the two day national executive meeting of the BJP, starting on April 3 in Bengaluru. The party's national executive was recently reconstituted and many prominent names, including Union ministers Smriti Irani, Najma Heptulla, Mathura MP Hema Malini and others, did not find a place in it.
The BJP has already sealed the deal with the Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir and party sources claimed that now the government is likely to induct one leader from the party to shore up its numbers in Parliament.
Sources said that the PDP patron and the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had initially proposed the name of the PDP President and Lok Sabha member from South Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti---also his daughter---but it was withdrawn when some BJP leaders opined that it would not send "right signals" within the coalition which had aggressively targetted Farooq Abdullah's "dynastic set up" in J&K. Mr Sayeed, according to sources, reconciled to the change after an influential lobby in the BJP favoured Mr Baig.
However, two of the senior PDP leaders insisted that Ms Mufti was not a contender for the Union Ministership from the beginning. PDP is holding all three of Kashmir valley seats in Lok Sabha in addition to two Rajya Sabha members. Former Minister Tariq Hamid Karra is the Lok Sabha member from Central Kashmir.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla, the senior-most member of Modi's council of ministers, who will turn 75 soon, is likely to be dropped from the Cabinet. It should also be noted that Modi had set up a cut-off age of 75 for ministers in his government. She is likely to be appointed as governor of a state.
MOS Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is likely to get additiinal portfolio of Minority Affairs in the impending reshuffle.
Earlier, in his first expansion of the Cabinet in November 2014, Modi had inducted 21 new faces. The Cabinet as of now has 26 Union ministers, 13 ministers of state (MoS) with independent charge and 26 other MoS, apart from the PM.
NDA's Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena, which has been demanding more seats in the Union Cabinet, is likely to get a berth for its nominee Anil Desai, who was left out of the Cabinet in the last reshuffle and expansion. He is likely to be inducted as MOS with independent charge. |
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