Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reshuffle his Council of Ministers on Thursday.

The ball for an imminent Union Cabinet reshuffle was set rolling with the appointment of Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot as Governor of Karnataka.

Gehlot, 73, from Madhya Pradesh was also the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha and a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board and its Central Election Committee.

So, the Rajya Sabha will have a new leader and the buzz is that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman could be Gehlot's replacement in the Upper House.

Among those likely to be inducted in the Union Council of Ministers are former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane.

The other possible inductions could be Janata Dal (United) leader RCP Singh, Lok Janshakti Party's Pashupati Paras and Annupriya Patel of Apna Dal.

In all, it is said that there will be 20 new faces in the Union Cabinet.

Those who are holding more than one post are likely to be divested of additional responsibilities.

There is also a buzz in the political circles that some ministers, including foreign minister S Jaishankar and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan might be dropped.

Along with Gehlot, President Ram Nath Kovind appointed seven other Governors.

PS Sreedharan Pillai, the Governor of Mizoram, has been moved to Goa.

Satyadev Narayan Arya, Haryana Governor, will shift to Tripura.

Tripura Governor Ramesh Bais has been transferred to Jharkhand.

Bandaru Dattatreya, the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, will take over as Governor of Haryana.

Hari Babu Kambhampati will be Mizoram Governor.

Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel will be Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has been named Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

The likely reshuffle on Thursday will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first since assuming the charge for the second term in May 2019.

The current strength of the Council of Ministers is 53, excluding the Prime Minister, and its maximum strength can be 81 with 28 vacancies.