Jaitley likely to drop defence ministry as cabinet reshuffle buzz gets louder

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday dropped hints he won't be defence minister for too long as Cabinet reshuffle is likely on September 2 or September 3-- before PM Narendra Modi leaves for China to attend the BRICS summit.

Modi has had several rounds of consultations with Shah and another top most leaders as the cabinet rejig is also being seen as performance audit of council of ministers by the PM.

When asked to comment about the shake up buzz, Jaitley said, "at least I hope not very long" to continue as defence minister. Jaitley had to double up as defence minister after Manohar Parrikar was moved to Goa as chief minister.

BJP sources said it's possible that cabinet reshuffle may take place either on Saturday or early Sunday before Modi leaves for Beijing. He will then go to Myanmar for two days from September 5. Before that President Ram Nath Kovind will be away from the national capital on Friday. If it does not happen in this window, then the rejig may be shifted to post Navaratra which begins from September 21. The days from September 5 till September 21 is not considered auspicious.

It is learnt that some of the union ministers have been told that they would be dropped from the government. Following that, these ministers have tipped off their personal staff to clear files before it becomes officials. Among them, at least two figure from Uttar Pradesh, including Kalraj Mishra who has already crossed 75-year age cap Modi had kept to remain in the government. For that reason, in the last reshuffle of July 2016, Najma Heptulla was dropped from the ministry and made Manipur governor.

Apart from Jaitley, some other ministers who have additional charges on account of the death of Anil Madhav Dave and M Venkaiah Naidu becoming Vice President may have to off load extra burden as this is expected to be large major exercise before Modi seeks a fresh mandate in 2019.

Science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan has been looking after the portfolio of environment, forests and climate change held by Dave. Similarly, Naidu's ministries were shared by textiles minister Smriti Irani and rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar. Irani got the additional charge of information and broadcasting Ministry, while Tomar has to manage the portfolio of urban development.

The reshuffle is expected to bring fresh faces to infuse new energy into the system. It will be also be taking into account the BJP's focus in the poll bound states of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka. Modi will also draft leaders of JDU into his team of ministers after the Bihar ally has come back into the NDA fold.

As of now, the strength of council of ministers is 73 which includes the PM. But, as per Article 72 of the Constitution, it can go up 82 since it says that the council of ministers shall not exceed 15 percent of the number of members in the Lok Sabha.