BJP president J.P. Nadda is looking to fill vacancies in the party organisation, with several of the ministers dropped during the cabinet shuffle expected to be handed key responsibilities.
Party insiders said it was Nadda who had called senior ministers ahead of the cabinet rejig and asked them to put in their papers. Now he has been ringing up some of them again to ask them to get ready to handle important party assignments.
Twelve ministers — including seven cabinet ministers — were sacked ahead of last Wednesday’s cabinet shuffle.
Of the 12, Thaawar Chand Gehlot had a day earlier been appointed Karnataka governor. Not all the rest are expected to be accommodated in the party organisation.
However, axed senior ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad (who held the law and IT portfolios) and Prakash Javadekar (who held information and broadcasting, and environment) are tipped to receive key assignments, probably relating to the poll-bound states, sources said.
Prasad, who has been sulking silently, is learnt to have received a phone call from Nadda’s office. There’s talk of his filling the vacancy left by general secretary Bhupender Yadav’s shift to the government.
Yadav was general secretary in charge of Gujarat and Bihar. Gujarat votes late next year.
Ramesh Pokhriyal, dropped as education minister, and Sadananda Gowda, axed as chemical and fertilisers minister, are being considered for party assignments too.
Some of those sacked —such as Santosh Gangwar, who was labour minister —could be appointed state governors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah have been systematically edging out leaders older than 70 years by shifting them to the Raj Bhavans. Gangwar, an eight-term MP, falls in this age bracket.
The most important vacancies are in the BJP parliamentary board, the party’s highest decision-making body. It has five vacancies, created by the deaths of
Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar, the elevation of M. Venkaiah Naidu as Vice-President, and the appointment of Gehlot as Karnataka governor.
The parliamentary board, headed by party chief Nadda, now has Modi, Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari and general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh as its members.
With most of the old guard having been sidelined or sent to the Raj Bhavans, the selections for the five vacancies will be keenly watched since these will reflect who has the blessings of the Modi-Shah duopoly.
