President Hosts Dinner For Ministers

President Droupadi Murmu hosted a dinner for the outgoing Union council of ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.

The seating arrangement at the dinner makes for interesting speculation.

Dharmendra Pradhan, for instance, seated next to Nitin Gadkari. Does that mean that Pradhan is out of the running for Odisha chief minister and will be mollified with a bigger portfolio than what he currently holds in the next Modi Cabinet?

And what of Gadkari? Two years before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, one Mo-Sha watcher had predicted that if Narendra D Modi returned to power a third time, Gadkari would not be made a minister or fobbed off as governor.

With Modi's BJP failing to win a simple majority in the Lok Sabha, would Mo-Sha risk angering Gadkari and his backers at the RSS HQ in Nagpur, especially as commentators have discussed the possibility of a future rebellion against the ruling deities of the party ala what Jagjivan Ram did to Indira Gandhi in March 1977?

Do look at the photographs carefully and draw your conclusions!

All photographs: ANI Photo

IMAGE: Will Smriti Irani, who lost her election in Amethi, and Narayan Rane, who won his election, be members of the next Modi Cabinet?

IMAGE: Will Om Birla continue to be Speaker in the 18th Lok Sabha? Liz Mathew in the Indian Express newspaper reported on Wednesday that both the Telugu Desam and the Janata Dal-United have staked their claim to the Lok Sabha Speakership.
Here, it must be noted that the 17th Lok Sabha functioned without a Deputy Speaker throughout its entire term.

IMAGE: Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to continue as finance minister in the next Modi Cabinet. It is unlikely the BJP will part with the home, defence and finance portfolios.

IMAGE: X has been abuzz with vigorous speculation that the TDP and JD-U have vetoed Amit A Shah continuing as home minister. Will Modi abandon his most trusted colleague?