Comments
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met President Ram Nath Kovind to tender his resignation along with those of his Council of Ministers and pave the way for the formation of a new government over the next week. A meeting of the BJP’s parliamentary party has been convened for Saturday along with an NDA meeting — for which all ruling party allies are expected to arrive in Delhi.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqué said the President had asked the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers to continue until the new government assumes office. The process to form a new House will be initiated when the three Election Commissioners meet the President over the next few days to hand over the list of newly elected members. The EC released the final tally of the Lok Sabha results, which showed that the BJP won 303 seats out of the 542 where elections were held, while the Congress won 52.
The Union Cabinet, which met earlier in the day, recommended dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha, whose term ends on June 3. The President, acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers, will accordingly dissolve the House.
No date has yet been set for the swearing-in of the new Cabinet. The first Modi government had taken the oath of office on May 26, 2014.
The BJP’s stupendous success in the elections clears the decks for a fresh alignment in the ruling party and government structures. The million-dollar question is: who becomes the BJP president if Amit Shah moves to the Union Cabinet.
The two Union Ministers whose health did not permit them to either campaign or contest elections — Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley — are expected to be offered the option of continuing in the Cabinet. Simultaneously, the three former Chief Ministers who were inducted into the central party unit as vice-presidents after the elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year — Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje — represent fresh talent for the Prime Minister to tap.
The biggest star among the younger lot of ministers is Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, the ‘giant-killer’ who defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. The PM has consistently promoted women leaders – Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj – for top slots in the Cabinet, and this is likely to continue in his second tenure. Another favourite for one of the top jobs is Piyush Goyal. The new Cabinet is also likely to see bigger representation from West Bengal, where the BJP is looking to expand its horizons.
Even as the ruling party and alliance are gearing up a fresh beginning, there were rumblings against the leadership in the principal Opposition party, the Congress, with Rahul Gandhi facing public pressure to resign in the wake of the party’s colossal defeat. However, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which is scheduled to meet on Saturday, will likely reject Rahul Gandhi’s offer to resign.
Meanwhile, a host of State Congress leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar, Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik and senior leader from Odisha Bhakta Charan Das, tendered their resignation, owning moral responsibility for the party’s defeat. The CWC meeting will also discuss the resignations of the State leaders.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.