PM Modi to chair meeting of Council of Ministers on July 3

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers on July 3, a development which comes against the backdrop of hectic meetings of the ruling BJP’s top brass amid a buzz over a Cabinet reshuffle and organisational changes. The July 3 meeting is likely to be held at the newly built convention centre at Pragati Maidan here, which will host the G20 summit in September, officials said on Thursday.

Though the speculation about a Cabinet reshuffle has been rife for a long time, recent meetings involving the BJP’s brain trust, including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda, and the fact that the period before the Parliament’s Monsoon Session could be the last window for such an exercise have added to the buzz. The Monsoon Session is likely to begin in the third week of July.

The party’s organisation, including in some states, may also see some changes as its top brass makes its choices for key positions as the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls intensifies in the coming months, sources said.

Modi held a meeting with Shah and Nadda on Wednesday. This came after closed-door meetings involving Shah and Nadda, among others, to take stock of organisational and political affairs.

The BJP is also making hectic preparations for assembly polls scheduled in several states this year, more so as the Congress has shown some bounce following its big win in Karnataka.

Elections are due in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram later this year, and the Congress will be the BJP’s main challenger in the first three states.

In Telangana, where the BJP has made big gains to emerge as a key player, the Congress has been pulling out all stops to regain its lost turf and grow as the main challenger to the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi.