Tridib Raman
The quiet political silences behind the scenes have begun to take on their own forms. Sources indicate that very soon, the Modi cabinet is set to get a new look. A change in the central cabinet may be seen before August 28, as the 28th is the last day of the month of Shravan. After that, the month of Bhadrapad begins, which is not considered very auspicious for starting any new undertaking. After Bhadra, the 16-day Pitru Paksha (Shradh period) begins, during which auspicious activities are generally not undertaken either. In other words, if Shravan is missed, one may have to wait until Navratri. It is said that this upcoming reshuffle could be a major reshuffle of the Modi cabinet. Several veteran ministers are likely to be dropped, and 30–35 new and relatively young leaders may get the opportunity to become ministers. The historic ‘Gen Z’ movement at Jantar Mantar has also forced BJP strategists to rethink their direction and approach. It is said that PM Modi himself believes that the average age of his new cabinet should be between 50 and 52. This means that young faces will have to be given wholesale entry into the cabinet, while established old stalwarts will have to be shown the door. Sources also indicate that even a veteran minister like Rajnath Singh may have to sit at home for some time, because the BJP top brass wants to make him the country’s new President in place of Droupadi Murmu. It may be noted that the current President’s term ends on July 24, 2027. So, from July 25, 2027, Rajnath Singh may be seen in a new role. In any case, Rajnath Singh has already turned 75. Health Minister JP Nadda is relatively younger; he is currently 66 years old. However, citing his health, he may prefer a quieter role, and it is possible that he could be appointed as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP top brass, in any case, wants to give Uttar Pradesh a new governor in place of Anandiben Patel. The 84-year-old Anandiben Patel has been continuously occupying the Raj Bhavan in Lucknow for the past seven years, since 2019. In recent days, there have also been reports of friction between her and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Following this alleged tussle, Anandiben Patel has been on leave for the last 10 days and is currently touring her home state Gujarat and Daman and Diu. As for the new Governor of UP, the names of Bihar’s veteran BJP leader Ashwini Choubey and Rajasthan’s hardline saffron leader Ghanshyam Tiwari are also doing the rounds. Tiwari is currently also a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan.
More Veterans May Be Dropped in Modi Cabinet Reshuffle
Tridib Raman
In the exercise to give the central cabinet a new and youthful face, several more veteran ministers may be dropped from the Modi cabinet. These names could include 74-year-old Hardeep Puri, 73-year-old Giriraj Singh, 71-year-old External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and 72-year-old Urban Development Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Minister of Industry and Commerce Piyush Goyal has been given the additional responsibility of national treasurer in Nitin Nabin’s new team. However, he is currently only 62 years old, so it is believed that he will continue to hold his ministerial position in the government while also serving as party treasurer. Meanwhile, Harsh Malhotra, whom the party has appointed as the new president of Delhi BJP, and Pankaj Chaudhary, who has been given the responsibility of UP BJP, may have to give up their ministerial posts. The positions of ministers like George Kurian and Ravneet Bittu are already vacant. In this upcoming Modi cabinet expansion, allied parties may also get good representation. Sources indicate that Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde’s MP son, Shrikant Shinde, may get an important ministry. From the JDU quota, another minister is likely to be appointed, with Sanjay Jha’s claim being the strongest. From the group of 20 MPs who broke away from the Trinamool Congress, two may be made ministers, with Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar’s name leading the list. Additionally, the fiery Trinamool MP Saayoni Ghosh may be made a national spokesperson of the BJP. It is said that recently, when Supriya Sule visited PM Modi along with her father Sharad Pawar, the PM jokingly asked Supriya, “Do you intend to remain an MP for life, or will you ever become a minister?” Supriya had no answer to that. The shrewd Sharad Pawar will take the risk of getting his daughter a ministerial berth in the Modi cabinet only after reading the political wind.
Will Smriti get a Rajya Sabha seat?
A brand new ‘Team Nabin’ is ready, and the most special thing is that this new team includes 51 faces who were not even part of the old team. Sources say that some leaders are not happy even after becoming part of their new team. For example, Rajasthan’s veteran BJP leader Vasundhara Raje Scindia, who has been made national vice-president in an attempt to pull her out of Rajasthan’s factional politics and bring her to Delhi. But Vasundhara’s heart still resides in Jaipur. Secondly, rather than joining the organisation herself, she was more keen on getting her son Dushyant Singh made a minister in the Modi cabinet, but it seems the BJP top leadership has poured cold water on her feelings. Similarly, Smriti Irani and Satish Poonia, both these leaders were more eager for a ministerial post at the Centre. Now Smriti has been made party general secretary and asked to remain active in UP. Along with this, she has also been told that “she has to contest the 2029 election again from Amethi.” But Smriti’s difficulty is that Yogi never likes her presence, so working for this leader in UP will not be easy at all. It is said that the BJP top leadership has assured Smriti that “in November, 10 Rajya Sabha seats from UP are going to fall vacant, of which 9 seats will come to the BJP, and of these, two seats will be kept reserved for Smriti and newly appointed another general secretary Harish Dwivedi.” Dwivedi, after all, is a resident of Basti in UP. As for the newly appointed national vice-president Ram Madhav, he too needs a Rajya Sabha seat for himself, but he has not received any concrete assurance from the saffron high command. Another general secretary of Team Nabin, Sanjay Bhatia, has been brought by Manohar Lal Khattar. It is said that Khattar himself played an important role in getting him a Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana. Bhatia has previously been general secretary of Haryana BJP, and in that sense too his promotion is very special. Because he had vacated his Karnal parliamentary seat in 2024 for Manohar Lal Khattar. There was a lot of discussion that Dharmendra Pradhan would also get an important role in Team Nabin, that he would be made national general secretary and given the responsibility of UP, but here Vinod Tawde stole the show. It is said that now Pradhan is trying to get himself made the Chief Minister of Odisha in place of Majhi, but for the time being the BJP top leadership does not appear ready for this.
BJP Parliamentary Board Set for a Major Reshuffle
The exercise to give a new face to the BJP’s highest decision-making body, the Parliamentary Board, is underway. According to the BJP constitution, the Parliamentary Board can have a maximum of 11 members including the president, but ironically, the current board has 12 members. The Prime Minister is an ex-officio member of this board. If we look at the current members, the board includes PM Modi, Nitin Nabin, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda, BS Yeddyurappa, Sarbananda Sonowal, Dr. K. Laxman, Dr. Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Satyanarayan Jatiya, and Sudha Yadav. BL Santhosh is the secretary of this board. With the aim of giving the board a new look, several members including Yeddyurappa, Sonowal, Laxman, Lalpura, Jatiya, and Sudha Yadav are likely to be dropped. According to the party’s recognized traditions, former national presidents of the BJP are also given a place in it, but Nitin Gadkari has been an exception to this. Despite being a successful BJP president, he has not been accorded this honor. Earlier, some chief ministers were also given a place in it, such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Fadnavis, etc. This time too, the claims of at least three saffron chief ministers are the strongest for inclusion in the board—namely Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis, and Himanta Biswa Sarma. If Sonowal is relieved from the board, then Sarma’s claim from the North-East quota is strong.
This is the new BJP
On the coming 25 November 2026, 11 Rajya Sabha seats from UP and Uttarakhand are falling vacant. Of these, as many as 10 seats are from UP alone, and the BJP may regain control over 9 of them. Among the BJP leaders who are retiring from the Rajya Sabha on this upcoming date are Hardeep Puri, Dinesh Sharma, Seema Dwivedi, Brijlal, Arun Singh, Neeraj Shekhar, Geeta Shakya, BL Verma and others. SP’s Professor Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP’s Ramji Gautam are also retiring. This may be the BSP’s last innings in the Rajya Sabha for now, because in UP it had only one MLA this time in the form of Uma Shankar Singh, and recently Singh passed away while battling cancer. Now a scramble has broken out in the BJP to secure Rajya Sabha seats, but for the time being the return of Rajnath Singh’s brother-in-law Arun Singh is being considered certain. It is also being said that in the upcoming central cabinet reshuffle, Arun Singh may be made a minister at the Centre. Several leaders who defected to the BJP are also hoping to get Rajya Sabha seats. In any case, the party has no particular aversion to defector leaders. Just look at Nitin Nabin’s new team: at least three newly appointed national vice-presidents have come to the BJP after switching sides from other parties, and they have been entrusted with responsibilities of such importance. For instance, Baijayant Panda came from the Biju Janata Dal, Manpreet Singh Badal from the Shiromani Akali Dal, and Purandeswari Devi from the Congress. As for the new secretaries of Team Nabin, Rohan Gupta and Anil Antony came from the Congress, while Sandeep Pathak came from the Aam Aadmi Party. When the BJP was formed on 6 April 1980, addressing party leaders and workers in Bombay on that occasion, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had said: “We are swayamsevaks who have emerged from the sanskars of the Sangh, and our party is not a shop into which anyone can walk in freely.
Sugar Scarcity Grips India
As soon as the festive season arrives, a sugar shortage has begun in the country, and prices in the market have already risen by ₹10–15 per kg. In such a situation, sugar mills are reaping rich profits, making hay while the sun shines. As a result, shares of sugar-producing companies such as Balrampur Chini, Dhampur Sugar, Dwarikesh Sugar, and Bajaj Hindustan surged by more than 10% in a single day on the stock market. Consequently, the government has been compelled to make sugar imports tax-free. This exemption has been granted until October 31. Rating agency ICRA estimates that India’s total sugar production for 2025–26 could be around 3.11 crore tonnes, out of which at least 31 lakh tonnes will be diverted for ethanol production. That is, production will effectively drop to 2.80 crore tonnes, while India’s annual sugar consumption stands at 2.83 crore tonnes. India has already exported 7 lakh tonnes of sugar. As for ethanol, it has provided sugar mills with a new and stable source of income. They are no longer limited to just the sugar business. The government has been blending ethanol with petrol; in 2024–25, the blending target of 19.24% was achieved, while for 2025–26, the target has been set at 20%. Sugar mills use sugarcane and syrup to produce ethanol, which diverts approximately 30–40 lakh tonnes of sugar every year, reducing the domestic supply of sugar. Companies like Balrampur Sugar and Triveni Engineering have significantly increased their distillery capacity, which has proven highly lucrative for them. If the government does not soon curb this trend, sugar will remain in short supply for the people of India.