Amit Shah confirms Cabinet reshuffle

BJP president Amit Shah on Friday confirmed that a Cabinet reshuffle would take place, but did not say when. “We will do it. A date has not been decided yet,” Mr Shah replied when asked at the BJP headquarters here whether the party was considering a replacement for Mr Sarbanand Sono-wal, who was sports and youth affairs minister at the Centre before becoming Assam CM. Mr Shah has been entrusted with finalising the party’s list of candidates for the June 11 Rajya Sabha elections.

Presenting the government’s two-year report card, Mr Shah asserted that the Central government had infused hope across all sectors with its “decisive” rule and pitc-hed the party’s “good” performance in the Asse-mbly elections as the peple’s mandate. On Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula committing suicide and the JNU incident, he said those who had raised the issues are “now-here”. He added the Centre had struck a balance between reforms and public welfare, taken pro-poor and pro-farmer initiatives and employment measures and boosted the economy.