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Indian PM may expand Cabinet next week

Xinhua, April 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to expand his Cabinet next week, for the second time since his Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in general elections in May last year, media reports said Friday.

The Cabinet expansion may take place on April 8, where at least two ministers are likely to be inducted and one junior minister to be elevated while the senior most minister may be shown the door, the reports said, quoting sources as saying Thursday.

The two new ministers likely to be inducted are Indian- controlled Kashmir's ruling coalition partner PDP's leader Mehbooba Mufti and western state of Maharashtra's regional party Shiv Sena's lawmaker Anil Desai, according to the reports.

A junior minister in Modi's Cabinet, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, may be elevated while 75-year-old Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla could be dropped, the reports said.

However, there has been no official confirmation from the government on the Cabinet expansion yet.

The last Cabinet expansion took place in November last year, in which former Chief Minister of the western state of Goa, Manohar Parrikar, was made the country's Defense Minister and Suresh Prabhu the Railway Minister. Endi