Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle, summoning a generational change and endeavouring to address the poll performance and pandemic concerns, is likely to happen this week itself.
According to the reports, the expansion, with 24 slots to fill and multiple ministries held by single ministers to be decoupled, has been talked about for a while now, with the possibility of it happening either on July 7 or 9 now being talked about with more conviction.
The reports further added that the Cabinet expansion will also affect the organisational appointments in the party as a senior general secretary of the BJP is presumed to get a Cabinet place.
The report further added that multiple ministries are currently being handled by one minister or other four such groups of ministries need to be redistributed and the Cabinet reshuffle exercise is likely to address that issue.
According to the Constitution, the number of ministers in the Union council of ministers cannot exceed more than 15% of total Lok Sabha MPs. This puts the number of ministerial slots empty as of now at 24. Whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fill the slots in one go or just restrict it to some necessary inclusions like that of Jyotiraditya Scindia who joined the BJP last year and helped topple the Kamal Nath-led Madhya Pradesh government is not yet confirmed.
Mr Scindia and former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who gracefully gave way to Himanta Biswa Sarma after his government was voted back to power in Assam seem to be the strongest candidates in the list of inclusions.
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