BJP leaders Manohar Lal Khattar, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Ravneet Singh Bittu may be among the new faces in the Union Council of Ministers which will be sworn in on today evening along with Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi.
Senior party leaders like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Nirmala Sitharaman and Mansukh Mandaviya are being seen as a certainty in the new government, PTI sources said.
Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav, BJP’s C.R. Paatil, who is president of its Gujarat unit, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rao Inderjit Singh, Nityanand Rai, Bhagirath Choudhary and Harsh Malhotra may also be inducted as Ministers, PTI sources said. Most of the leaders mentioned met Mr. Modi over tea, a custom he has followed before the Cabinet formation exercise since 2014.
BJP MPs Jitin Prasada from Uttar Pradesh and Raksha Khadse from Maharashtra are also tipped to be part of the new government. Khadse confirmed to the media that she has received a call to be part of the government. A source told news agency PTI Ms. Sitharaman, the outgoing Finance Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju, both outgoing Ministers as well, will also be taking oath.