Gandhinagar : With an eye on civic polls scheduled in October 2010, chief minister Narendra Modi has decided to go in for expanding his council of ministers. Modi is likely to add six more ministers to the existing list of 17 on Aug 21. The ministerial strength allowed for Gujarat is 27, or 15 per cent of MLAs.

One of the main aims of Modi is to ensure that Ahmedabad is properly represented, even as giving necessary caste-wise representation in the government to MLAs from central Gujarat and Saurashtra. Among the names doing the rounds from Ahmedabad are BJP chief whip in the state assembly Pradeepsinh Jadeja and former minister of state Bharat Barot.

The need to represent Ahmedabad better in the government is considered necessary after the resignation of minister of state for home Amit Shah, who was arrested by the CBI last month for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Shah represented Sarkhej constituency. In March 2009, minister of state for women and child welfare Maya Kodnani, also from Ahmedabad, resigned after her arrest by the special investigation team, which is probing the Gujarat riots. At present, there is just one representative from Ahmedabad in the government - Modi himself.

Modi is likely to make a choice from someone in central Gujarat, comparatively a weaker region for the BJP. Here, Pankaj Desai, Nadiad MLA, is considered essential in order to neutralise the influence of Union minister of state for energy Bharat Solanki on the OBC vote bank. Also, as there is no representation in the government from Vadodara, Modi may choose either Jitendra Sukhadia or Bhupendra Lakhawala.