Modi begins talks for new cabinet

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to hold talks yesterday to form a new cabinet to tackle a stuttering economy and other challenges facing his second term after winning a big majority.

According to a statement from office of president of India, President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Council of Ministers yesterday. They will continue in office till the new government is formed.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on President Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan,” the president of India tweeted from the official handle, along with a photo of the PM and the president.

Earlier, the union cabinet recommended the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha. President Ram Nath Kovind is now expected to dissolve the present 16th   Lok Sabha, the term of which is ending on June 3.

The 17th Lok Sabha has to be constituted before June 3 and the process to form a new House will be initiated when the three election commissioners meet the president in the next few days to hand over the list of newly-elected members.

The cabinet met a day after the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP-led alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) retained power with a massive mandate.

Official data from the Election Commission of India showed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party had won 303 of the 542 seats up for grab, up from the 282 it won in 2014, reported NDTV. The BJP would have the first back-to-back majority in the lower house of parliament for a single party since 1984.

NDA has won352 seats while the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has won 91. The Congress once again fell short of numbers needed to get Leader of Opposition position in Lok Sabha. It won just 52 seats, compared to its worst-ever tally of 44 seats in the last general election.

Newly-elected MPs of the BJP-led NDA will meet today to formally elect Narendra Modi as their leader, setting in motion the process of formation of the new government.

The BJP said the meeting will take place in parliament’s Central Hall at 5:00pm.

Modi has not yet set an inauguration date for the administration, but BJP officials said he was expected to move quickly to put together a new cabinet as focus shifts back to an economy which is slowing.

Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, his closest aide, are believed to be keen on including newer faces in the council of ministers. West Bengal, where the BJP has made a phenomenal career advancement, jumping from two to 18 seats, could get big representation.

The PM and Shah have so far not indicated a decision on the “Big 4” ministries - home, finance, external affairs and Defence.

An immediate decision will be whether to keep senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley as finance minister despite his poor health, or assign Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal to the job of leading Asia’s third largest economy.

Goyal, 54, had stepped into the role twice in the Modi government when Jaitley was ill. Goyal presented an interim budget before the election and a full budget is due after the new government takes office.

Amit Shah, who is credited with crafting the political strategy that helped the party retain its base in northern and western India but also advanced in the east, is tipped to be the home minister, a powerful post with control of security and intelligence services.

Smriti Irani, who was textiles minister, is expected to get a weighty reward for emerging as the BJP’s crown jewel of the election season by defeating Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi - the constituency held by his family for four decades. Gandhi himself was elected thrice from Amethi. It took Irani just five years to eject him - she ran against him unsuccessfully in 2014, then reversed that on Tuesday.

Gandhi remains an MP - he also contested the Wayanad constituency of Kerala and won it easily, but the combined disaster of Congress and his unceremonious ejection from Amethi has constructed a new crisis for both his leadership and his party.

The Congress, which has ruled India for the longest time, has drawn a blank in 18 states and Union Territories -- an indicator of its decimation in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress has been completely routed in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.

“It is astonishing that Rahul Gandhi has not yet resigned as Congress president,” historian Ramachandra Guha said on Twitter.

“Both self-respect, as well as political pragmatism, demand that the Congress elect a new leader. But perhaps the Congress has neither,” he added.

Despite the dominance of the BJP and its allies in the lower house of parliament, analysts say it does not yet have the numbers in the upper house for tougher reforms such as relaxed labour and land laws sought by the business community.

Source: Agencies