Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on Sunday expected to carry out the first major reshuffle of his cabinet since storming to power in May, with the key defence portfolio likely to go to a new minister.
Manohar Parrikar, a sauve regional leader of Modi’s right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), is tipped to take over as defence minister after resigning Saturday as chief minister of the resort coastal state of Goa.
Parrikar’s likely appointment would ease the burden on Arun Jaitley, who has been juggling both the defence and finance ministries while battling ill-health.
Being relieved of defence would allow Jaitley to focus on spurring the flagging economy by making India more investor-friendly.
A government source said on Saturday that Parrikar had accepted an offer to “head a key ministry” but the portfolio would only be announced the next day.
Like Modi, Parrikar has a strong background in the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organisation, accused by critics of sometimes fomenting religious conflict in India, which has a large Muslim minority.
Modi was due to hold a breakfast for the newcomers with the swearing-in slated for early afternoon at New Delhi’s Rashtrapati Bhavan presidential palace, Indian media reported.
Several new faces could be brought in, while some junior ministers could be elevated to full cabinet rank.
Analysts said the rejig could come as a relief to several of Modi’s ministers who have been handling multiple portfolios.
Modi is widely known as a workaholic intent on shaking India’s economy out of its doldrums.
But media reports have said some ministers and bureaucrats have felt overloaded.
“Jaitley, for example, was given two key portfolios — each of which required a full-time minister,” said K G Suresh, a senior fellow with the Delhi-based Vivekanand International Foundation think-tank.
“Modi was trying to experiment with the idea of having very few ministers,” Suresh told reporters.
“It seems he has realised that his ministers are perhaps over-burdened and not able to do justice to their work.”
Suresh pointed to recent developments on India’s borders with giant neighbours Pakistan and China as underscoring the need for a full-time defence minister.