Amit Shah to be part of Narendra Modi’s cabinet

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah is all set to be inducted into the cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi who will be sworn in for a second straight term at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi this evening.

The news of Shah joining the new cabinet came from Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani who tweeted a congratulatory message, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

"Had a courtesy meeting with our mentor Amit Shah and gave my best wishes to him on his inclusion as a strong member of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers," he tweeted.

Prime Minister Modi held a final round of consultations with Shah this morning to give a final shape to his council of ministers before sending the list to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Modi and his close aide Shah have had several rounds of discussions in the last two days ahead of government-formation.

Other senior party leaders like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani are also likely to be retained for the second Modi-government after being its members in its first term.

The others tipped to get a ministerial berth include Dilip Ghosh, DV Sadananda Gowda, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Giriraj Singh, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Thawarchand Gehlot, Jitendra Singh, Mansukh Mandaviya, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Arjun Ram Meghawal and Niranjan Jyoti.

Among some of the new faces who are likely to be inducted include Prahlad Patel from Madhya Pradesh, Kailash Chowdhry from Rajasthan, Krishna Reddy from Telangana, Suresh Angadi from Karnataka and Raosaheb Danve from Maharashtra.

Among the BJP's partners, Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janatantrik Party, Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena, Harsimrat Kaur Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal and Ramdas Athawale of Republican Party of India (A) are likely to take oath, official sources said.

Other BJP allies like Janata Dal (U), AIADMK, and Apna Dal are also set to be represented in the new government.

The swearing-in ceremony in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan is expected to be a grand affair with more than 6,000 guests, including Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid and leaders from six other BIMSTEC countries, opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, chief ministers, corporate honchos and film stars set to be in attendance as President Ram Nath Kovind administers the oath of office and secrecy to 68-year-old Modi and his ministerial colleagues.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to skip Modi's swearing-in after a bitter war of words during the campaign for recent parliamentary elections in which the BJP secured a landslide win.