Speculation preceded cabinet reshuffle on 7/7/2021. There were reports who will be made ministers. Many names were mentioned. Some of them were not made ministers.
It seems reporters put the names of persons who hoped to become ministers. They should have known that Modi will not make Varun Gandhi or Pritam Munde a minister. Modi does not want dynasts to claim entitlement. Years back, Modi said there were five lakh people at his Calcutta rally. Varun Gandhi said not so much.
One report was that Shiv Sena will dump Congress and NCP and join with BJP in Maharashtra. A BJP member will become Deputy CM. Devendra Fadnavis will move to Centre. Expulsion of 12 BJP MLAs for one year ended that talk.
Sushil Modi did not make it. He was Deputy CM in Bihar. When he was made Rajya Sabha member there was expectation that he will be made minister. He seemed to have paid the price for being close to Nitish Kumar.
Jyotiraditya Scindia made it. Reward for splitting Congress and bringing back BJP government in MP.
There was talk of four ministers from JD(U). Ramchandra Prasad Singh was the only one to become minister.
Narayan Rane took oath first. Signal to Uddhav Thackeray.
Pashu Pati Kumar Paras made it. He had split LJP. Chirag Paswan’s loyalty to Modi has no value.
Seven ministers were promoted to cabinet rank.
Kiren Rijiju
Raj Kumar Singh
Hardeep Puri
Mansukh Mandaviya
Gangaram Kishan Reddy
Parshottam Rupala
Anurag Thakur
Surprising was the list of ministers who had to quit.
Following ministers were out.
Cabinet Ministers
Sadananda Gowda – Chemicals & fertilisers
Ravi Shankar Prasad – Law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology
Thaawar Chand Gehlot – Social Justice and Empowerment
Ramesh Pokhriyal – Human Resource Development
Harsh Vardhan – Health and Family Welfare
Prakash Javadekar – Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Information and Broadcasting.
Ministers of State (Independent charge)
Santosh Kumar Gangwar – Labour and Employment
Ministers of State
Ashwini Kumar Choubey – Health and Family Welfare
Babul Supriyo – Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Sanjay Dhotre – Human Resource Development. Communications.
Electronics and Information Technology.
Rattan Lal Kataria – Jal Shakti. Social Justice and Empowerment.
Debasree Choudhuri – Women and Child Development
Pratap Chandra Sarangi – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.
Thaawar Chand Gehlot was made Governor of Karnataka. Ramesh Pokhriyal’s resignation was supposed to be due to health. Babul Supriyo expressed his disappointment. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh Vardhan and Prakash Javadekar were scapegoats for Modi’s failure. Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar had defended government actions and policies. Modi took important decisions regarding Corona Crisis. There was donation/export of vaccines to other countries. He was praised for leadership in controlling the pandemic. Then second wave struck. There was shortage of oxygen, remdesivir and vaccines. Things were out of control. Suddenly there was realisation that health was a state subject. As Corona spread Modi continued with election rallies in West Bengal. Congress stopped rallies. BJP leaders said Rahul Gandhi knows he is defeated. Later Modi stopped rallies.
Regional and other combinations of ministers do not guarantee victory in elections.
Petrol, diesel and LPG prices are going up. Petrol price is above 100 rupees per litre. Prices of many commodities are up. They will make a difference in voting.
Dropped ministers will be unhappy and unless suitably accommodated will turn against Modi. Modi does not have to worry about majority in Lok Sabha.
This reshuffle will not make much difference in how West views Modi. Much of West lost interest in Modi years ago when in an interview to the Wall Street Journal he said there will be no hire and fire policy.