Mahajan's ascent to the IT ministry is also expected to set off a turf battle between him and Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, as both ministries really overlap each other. The backbone of IT is communication lines, and world over the major communication companies are also big IT players, especially as far as the internet is concerned. In India, with the government committed to more or less completely free of the telecom sector, the big telecom players also have big internet and other IT plans. Since it is telecom cable which eventually carries both voice signals (for phones, basic as well as cellular)and the data packets (for internet, cable television, e-commerce, and internet telephony), the real battle will be for the cable or telecom line. And both Paswan and Mahajan's ministry will want to have the power to decide over this.

Among other prominent secretaries who will be moved will be secretary Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Bhure Lal who will take charge at the newly-created tribal affairs ministry. A panel of three additional secretaries has been prepared for taking over Bhure Lal's job, and will be presented to N Vittal, the chief vigilance commissioner. As reported earlier, petroleum secretary T S Vijaya Raghavan will be replaced by Dr S Narayanan from the bureau of public enterprises. The shift in secretaries comes in the wake of the Prime Minister's move to carve out some new ministries as well as to create special departments within existing ministries.