Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Thursday said that the Modi government’s Cabinet reshuffle would neither be able to cover up the Centre’s wrong policies and shortcomings nor divert the citizens’ attention from them.

“The citizens of the country are waiting for a change at the right time,” she said in a tweet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 43 leaders in the Union Cabinet on Wednesday after dropping 12 ministers. The exits of senior BJP leaders Harsh Vardhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Ramesh Pokhriyal stood out during the revamp.

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She also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh, saying that it had also failed on all fronts. “The citizens here are very upset with its policies, working style, tall promises and announcements on the Covid-19 outbreak,” Mayawati said.

The Congress had described Vardhan’s removal as the health minister an admission of the government’s “monumental failure” in managing the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is a lesson for ministers in these resignations,” Congress leader P Chidambaram said. “If things go right, the credit will go to the PM, if things go wrong, the minister will be the fall guy. That is the price a minister pays for implicit obedience and unquestioning subservience.”

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After the rejig, Mansukh Mandaviya was the new health minister. Jyotiraditya Scindia has been given the civil aviation portfolio, while Ashwini Vaishnaw will now handle two ministries – railways and information and technology. Home Minister Amit Shah will take over the newly formed Ministry of Cooperation.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation also criticised the reshuffle and said that changing bogies was of no use when the government’s engine had failed.

“The responsibility for the complete failure of the Modi-Shah ‘double engine’ government lies squarely with Modi and Shah and the massive Cabinet reshuffle cannot cover it up,” the party said.