'Centre's can't hide its failures': BSP chief Mayawati assails Union Cabinet reshuffle

Weighing in on the Union Cabinet reshuffle, BSP supremo Mayawati opined that this cannot hide its failures and shortcomings during PM Modi's tenure. According to her, the Centre would not be able to distract the attention of people from the real issues. She contended that people are waiting for a chance to overhaul the "miserable situation" of the country. Writing on Twitter, the former CM alleged that the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh had failed as far as the welfare agenda is concerned. Moreover, the BSP president claimed that people are very upset over the Yogi Adityanath-led government's COVID-19 handling. 

Cabinet reshuffle

In a first confirmation that a Cabinet reshuffle was likely soon, Thaawarchand Gehlot was dropped from the Council of Ministers on Tuesday and appointed as the Governor of Karnataka. The new gubernatorial appointments include Dr. Hari Babu Kambhampati (Mizoram) Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel (Madhya Pradesh) and Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar (Himachal Pradesh). On the other hand, Mizoram Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai, Haryana Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya, HP Governor Bandaru Dattatraya and Tripura Governor Ramesh Bais have been transferred to the states of Goa, Tripura, Haryana and Jharkhand respectively. 

A day later, 12 Union Ministers including Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Harsh Vardhan and Sadananda Gowda put in their papers. At 6 pm on Wednesday, 43 Ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Out of this, RK Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Anurag Thakur and Parshottam Rupala were promoted from MoS to Cabinet rank.

The new inductees into the Union Council of Ministers include Narayan Rane, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Pashupati Paras, Anupriya Patel, Meenakshi Lekhi, Kapil Patil, Ajay Bhatt, Sarbananda Sonowal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Virendra Kumar, Shobha Karandlaje etc. As a result, the strength of PM Modi's team has increased to 77. Most importantly, the new Council of Ministers is more representative in terms of caste, religion, region and experience than several other governments in the past. For instance, there are 27 OBC Ministers in the Union Council of Ministers which is the highest representation of this community since Independence. 

The portfolio allocation didn't throw up many surprises with Nirmala Sitharaman retaining the Finance portfolio. While Union Home Minister Amit Shah will also handle the Cooperation Ministry, Smriti Irani's Textiles portfolio has been reassigned to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. On the other hand, the Education, I&B, Environment and Civil Aviation portfolios have gone to Dharmendra Pradhan, Thakur, Yadav and Scindia respectively. First-time Minister Vaishnaw will take charge of Railways, Communications and IT.