New Delhi: With both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah calling on President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday and Thursday, speculation is now rife of a Cabinet reshuffle either on Sunday or Monday.
Their is strong belief that education minister Dharmendra Pradhan may lose his portfolio due to the backlash faced by the government after the NEET UG 2026 paper leak.
Nirmala Sitaraman, Hardeep Puri, Nitin Gadkari and Manohar Lal Khattar may also be shifted to other ministries.
Puri could be replaced by a Sikh or a leader from Punjab, and Raghav Chadda’s name is doing the rounds. The state could also get more representation in view of the upcoming Assembly elections, as reported by The Week
.
There has been limited representation from Punjab in the Union Cabinet since Modi took over as Prime Minister. While Puri is a Sikh, he has never been associated with Punjab politics.
The name of JD(U) chief and former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is also doing the rounds as a possible entrant to the Union Cabinet. Former Reserve Bank of India governor and former principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Shaktikanta Das, may also be included as a Cabinet minister.
Nirmala Sitharaman could beshifted to the Human Resource Development ministry, reports suggest.
New faces in the Cabinet could include Lok Sabha MP Shrikant Shinde, son of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde. It was Shrikant who brought six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs to the NDA fold. There are also rumours of former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray joining.
There is also speculation that the 20 rebel TMC MPs in the Lok Sabha, could stake a claim for a Cabinet berth. They had already announced their support for the NDA, and at present, they constitute the second-largest constituent party in the NDA after the BJP. The smaller TDP and JDU have one cabinet minister and one minister of state each, and the new MPs could demand the same.
The BJP has, however, distanced itself from the faction and it remains to be seen whether it does get a berth.