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BJP’s stupendous success in the elections paves the way for a fresh alignment in the ruling party and government structures with a million dollar question about who fits the bill as organisation head if Amit Shah moves to the Union Cabinet.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Ramnath Kovind and tendered his resignation along with the Council of Ministers, and the President requested them to continue till the new government assumes office, the shape of the new Cabinet was the biggest talking point in the ruling party circles.
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.
‘New pool of talent’
Simultaneously, the three former Chief Ministers — Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh) and Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) — who were inducted into the BJP as Vice-Presidents, present a fresh talent pool for the Prime Minister.
The two former party presidents — Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari — are expected to continue in the Council of Ministers while the names of Health Minister JP Nadda and party MP and General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav were doing the rounds as possible replacements in the event of Amit Shah moving to the Cabinet.
The biggest star in the younger lot of Ministers is Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani who defeated Congress President Rahul Gandhi in his home turf of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
The PM has shown his preference for promoting women leaders — Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj — for the top slots in the Cabinet and this is likely to continue in his second tenure. Another favourite for among the top jobs is Piyush Goyal.
There is likely to be continuum with Ravi Shankar Prasad, who has just won a big victory over Shatrughan Sinha in Bihar’s Patna Sahib constituency, and Prakash Javdekar, while the BJP is also expected to give bigger representation to States such as West Bengal, where it wishes to expand.
Similarly, allies such as the Shiromani Akali Dal, Janata Dal (United) and Shiv Sena are likely to get their due representation in the Cabinet along with the new allies such as the AIADMK.
The BJP Parliamentary party as well as the NDA is scheduled to meet on Saturday.
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