Hours after Kiren Rijiju was relieved from his duty as the Union Law Minister, the Minister of State for Law and Justice Satya Pal Singh Baghel has been moved to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

After Rijiju was dropped from the Law Ministry, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal was allotted the portfolio of Union Minister of State (Independent in-charge) for the Ministry of Law in addition to already held portfolios as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Culture.

As per a convention, a ministry which is already headed by a Minister of state with independent in-charge cannot have a deputy, which is because Baghel was moved to Health Ministry.

A press communique of the Rastrapati Bhavan stated that the President of India on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed to assign SP Baghel as the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in place of the Minister of State for Law and Justice.

The move of cabinet re-shuffle by the government was surprising to drop Rijiju from Law and appoint him as the Union Minister of Earth Sciences earlier this morning.

SP Baghel, a former Mulayam Singh Yadav loyalist and Bahujan Samaj party member, joined the BJP in 2014.

Baghel was brought into politics by late Mulayam Singh Yadav, Baghel was a police officer who back in the time used to be in the security team of Yadav while he was the Chief Minister.

Later, Yadav brought Baghel into politics and gave various positions within the party and later in 1998, Baghel made his electoral debut fighting from UP’s Jalesar Lok Sabha seat on a SP ticket , which he won and repeated the same in the consecutive 1999 and 2004 polls.

Later in 2009 after being denied ticket, Baghel joined BSP and lost the contest against SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav in Firozabad but a year later the BSP made him a Rajya Sabha member but in 2014, he joined BJP and again contested Firozabad Lok Sabha seat, this time against son of SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav but was defeated.

Later in 2017 UP assembly elections, the BJP fielded him from a Scheduled Caste reserved Tunda seat in Firozabad, where he marked victory and was made the Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Minor Irrigation and Underground Water. He stepped down from the post after getting elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 general polls. In 2021, he was inducted to PM Modi’s cabinet.

After days of un-certainity and rising speculations, Congress has officially announced Siddaramaiah will be the next chief minister of Karnataka with DK Shivakumar as his sole deputy.

Shivakumar who currently holds the charge as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee(KPCC) will continue his position until parliamentary elections next year, in addition to the new role he has been assigned.

The announcement was made by party general secretary- organization KC Venugopal in the afternoon today during a press briefing.

Venugopal while addressing the press said that the party has decided to make Siddaramaiah next Karnataka CM and DK Shivakumar will be the only deputy CM of the state while continuing his position as the PCC president until the general elections due next year.

A meeting of the newly elected legislators have been convened in Bengaluru in the evening today to formally elect their new leader, said Venugopal.

He added, the swearing-in ceremony of the the new government in waiting will take place on May 20, Saturday.

Before the announcement, Venugopal said they were trying to get into consensus over the past days after the results were out. Both Siddaramaiah DK Shivakumar have worked hard for the party and they are valuable assets for the party in the state and that both of them deserve the power. Venugopal said both are a good combination.

On the question of power sharing formula, Venugopal said the only formula is to share the power to the people of the state.

It is being speculated that the decision is being taken after both leaders agreed for a power sharing formula working on a rotational basis as the chief minister.

The speculations were raised after Shivakumar this morning while speaking to a private TV channel on asked about the agreement of power sharing formula replied smiling why not to agree and sometimes the ice has to break.

The decision was finalized in the wee hours of Thursday morning itself after party president held a long series of closed door meetings before reaching to the final decision, as claimed by reports.

On Thursday, throwing a major surprise, the union cabinet reshuffled dropping Kiren Rijiju as the Minister of Law and Justice and was appointed as Minister of Earth Sciences.

Union cabinet minister Arjun Ram Meghawal has been assigned the law ministry as the MoS(Independent in-charge).

Meghwal is the current Minister of state for Parliamentary affairs and Culture in the Narendra Modi led government at the center. Law ministry is an addition to his existing portfolios.

The announcement was a made after a press statement was released by the Rasthrapati Bhavan.

The statement read that the President of India has taken the decision to direct the reallocation of portfolios among Ministers in the Union Cabinet after advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The decision comes after tensions between Rijiju and the Supreme Court Collegium surfaced over his objection to electing of judges through voting.

Minutes, after the announcement of reshuffle was made Rijiju changed his Twitter bio.

Rijiju held the charge of Union Law Ministry since July 8, 2021 when he replaced Ravi Shankar Prasad.

He earlier assumed portfolio of the Ministry of State (Independent Charge) of Youth Affairs and Sports from May 2019 to July 2021. He also served as the Minister of State for Minority Affairs during this period. 

Rijiju is a Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal West constituency who also served as the Minister of State for Home Affairs (India) in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. 

Arjun Ram Meghwal, a senior leader of the BJP from Rajasthan, formerly served as the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, is an MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan, who first got elected in 2009.

The decision of allocating the heavy Law Ministry portfolio to Meghwal is being seen as a move taken keeping the Rajasthan elections in view that is due in the end of this year.