Leaving the four key Ministries untouched, Prime Minister Narendra Modi late Tuesday evening did a major revamp of his Cabinet. The reshuffle appeared to be more focussed as much on broadbasing the BJP’s appeal across caste lines in crucial States due for polls as on performance.

Newly appointed Cabinet Minister Prakash Javadekar got the coveted HRD Ministry, replacing Smriti Irani, who was embroiled in a number of controversies. Irani has been moved to the Textiles Ministry, which was earlier with Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State (Independent Charge). Anil Madhav Dave is the new Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

In a crucial change in the Finance Ministry, however, Jayant Sinha was moved out and he will be the MoS in the Civil Aviation Ministry.

Santosh Gangwar will be an MoS in the Finance Ministry, while Arjun Ram Meghwal will assist the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, in Finance and Corporate Affairs Ministries.

Jaitley has been divested of the Information and Broadcasting portfolio, which has been given to Venkaiah Naidu. Ananth Kumar will be the new Parliamentary Affairs Minister, replacing Naidu. DV Sadananda Gowda has been assigned to Statistics and Programme Implementation, while Ravi Shankar Prasad has returned to the Law Ministry. Narendra Singh Tomar has been named the new Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister, and Chaudhary Birender Singh moved to Steel.

Earlier in the day, in what the Prime Minister termed as a move with “Budget focus and priorities”, Modi expanded his Cabinet, bringing19 Ministers on board, and taking the strength of the Council of Ministers to 78, the largest in recent years and just one short of UPA 1’s 79- member ‘jumbo’ Cabinet’.

Though the Prime Minister sought to give the expansion an economic veneer, the general perception was that it was more a political than an economic. decision that narrows the gap between the BJP and the government, if, that is, there was any.

Congratulating the new-comers, Modi tweeted: “Let’s work together to bring a positive difference and for transforming India.”

In this effort, the hand of BJP President Amit Shah was evident. He has obviously considered the regional spread and the social factor besides paying particular attention to the States heading for elections.

No promotion, yet Post an evaluation of the performance of his Ministers on July 1, expectations were running high that Modi would elevate those who emerged with ‘A’ grades. Leading the line-up were the two energy ministers — Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan. But Javadekar beat them to the post.

So, what went wrong that the Ministers of State who were doing good work even according to the government’s own appraisal? While some say Goyal’s high profile visibility has gone against him, others believe that this is not an opportunity lost. Both Pradhan and Goyal have been performers and course correction will happen, said a BJP leader.

Perhaps as a show of confidence in Goyal, he has been given additional charge of Mines.

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