Major cabinet reset expected post-PM’s Seychelles visit; Shaktikanta Das in frame for Finance portfolio

NEW DELHI: In a bid to counter severe damage to its public image following the high-profile NEET question paper leak and a deeply flawed CBSE re-evaluation process, the third Modi administration is poised for an immediate and sweeping cabinet reshuffle.

The political overhaul is expected to take place immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns on June 29 from his two-day official visit to Seychelles, which begins this Saturday. The government has faced immense pressure over the examination scandals, particularly following the tragic suicides of 16 students linked to the NEET controversy.

Major shifts at the top: Education and Finance

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is expected to bear the brunt of the fallout and face an exit from the cabinet. To restore public trust, the leadership is considering shifting the widely respected Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, to head the Education Ministry. However, the party leadership is also weighing a formal request from Nirmala Sitharaman to be granted relief from active ministerial duties due to pressing health concerns.

Should Nirmala Sitharaman move or step aside, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has emerged as the frontrunner for the Finance portfolio. Shaktikanta Das has been serving as the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) since October 2025.

Strategic exits and regional calculations

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri is also likely to be dropped from the cabinet following controversies surrounding the "Epstein file" allegations. As a prominent Sikh face, Puri’s exit is expected to pave the way for a fresh induction from Punjab, keeping the state's assembly elections next year in sharp focus.

Concurrently, Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, whose Rajya Sabha membership is not being renewed, is slated to return to Punjab to anchor the party’s state-level electoral strategies.

Vacancies have also opened up in other key ministries due to organisational reassignments:

• Harsh Malhotra (MoS for Road Transport, Highways, and Corporate Affairs) has been appointed as the Delhi BJP President.
• Pankaj Chaudhary (MoS for Finance) has been appointed to lead the party's Uttar Pradesh unit.

New faces will be inducted to fill these portfolios, with Uttar Pradesh anticipated to secure heavy representation to fortify the party's position ahead of its own upcoming assembly elections. Speculation of the impending changes reached a fever pitch late Thursday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-profile meeting with President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Rewards for alliance partners and defectors

The upcoming reshuffle is also heavily geared toward rewarding key political defectors and regional allies who helped secure numbers for the coalition:

• Raghav Chadha, who successfully engineered the defection of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs, is highly tipped for a cabinet position.
• Shrikant Shinde, Lok Sabha MP and son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, is expected to be rewarded for his role in shifting six MPs away from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena.
• Nitish Kumar, the veteran JDU leader and former Bihar Chief Minister currently serving in the Rajya Sabha, is also on the list of projected inductees.
• Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who recently broke ranks with the Trinamool Congress (TMC), is strongly positioned for a ministerial berth.

Additionally, a faction of former TMC MPs who recently merged into the NCPI have formally requested cabinet representation, though top leadership has yet to confirm whether their demands will be accommodated.