Why PM Modi May Keep Shaktikanta Das Out of the Cabinet
Charanjot Singh Nanda, President ICAI, met Shaktikanta Das, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. (Image ICAI on X)
By AMIT KUMAR
As speculation grows over a possible Cabinet reshuffle and reports linking Shaktikanta Das to the Finance Ministry, political observers believe his strategic role in the PMO could make him indispensable to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
New Delhi, June 27, 2026 — There’s a massive buzz in a section of the media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may replace Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with principal secretary in the PMO Shaktikanta Das. The Prime Minister is likely to carry out a Cabinet reshuffle in the near future.
Sitharaman has been India’s Finance Minister since May 30, 2019. She is already into her eighth year as the Finance Minister. As India faces sharp economic challenges, political observers claim that the Prime Minister may finally let her go for other portfolio and induct a new face who could revive the market belief in the government.
Sitharaman is known to be a prodigy of late Arun Jaitely. Speculations are also rife that Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal could also be in the contention for the role of India’s next Finance Minister.
But Das is widely known to be a confidante of the Prime Minister. A top bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance, Das as the Reserve Bank of India Governor had won praises from the markets for his role in stabilising the volatility in the currency markets. His stance in the monetary policy had won him praises.
Das is currently serving as the 14th principal secretary in the PMO. He’s working alongside PK Mishra, the 13th principal secretary, in the PMO. Das has been in the PMO since March 2025.
“Das is being groomed to take over as the main principal secretary to the PMO. PK Mishra is already 77 years old, and serving in his position since 2019 after his predecessor Nripendra Mishra left the PMO. It’s very likely that Das will stay in the PMO as Modi may not like to bring a new face at a time when his government is approaching the mid tenure in the third term,” said Manish Anand, a senior Delhi-based journalist.
Anand argued that the Prime Minister may not prefer a change in the leadership role in the bureaucracy in the PMO at this moment. “Nripendra Mishra served in the PMO for over five years. PK Mishra is in the key role in the PMO for over seven years. Thus, stability and long tenure have been the features of the post of the principal secretary in the PMO,” added Anand.
Sources in the BJP said that speculations around the likely shift of the incumbent Finance Minister is “highly speculative.”
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