Imminent Modi Cabinet rejig has BJP veterans digging in their heels

The long-anticipated reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet may finally be around the corner. A major hurdle to the exercise was crossed on August 17 when BJP president Nitin Nabin unveiled a new team, paving the way for a ministerial rejig that normally follows an organisational overhaul in the saffron scheme of things.

While that was the first sign of an imminent Cabinet rejig, events of the bygone week brought further indications in their wake.

Senior ministers Nitin Gadkari and Jual Oram have publicly dug in their heels making it clear that they were both here to stay and won’t be easily ousted from the Cabinet.

While Gadkari, widely known to be in the good books of the RSS but not so much of PM Modi, issued a statement saying he was not retiring from politics yet, tribal stalwart from Odisha Jual Oram went a step further and threatened his political rivals.

“I have the strength to cut off the hands of those hatching a conspiracy to oust me from the Cabinet,” said Union Tribal Affairs Minister Oram indicating growing tensions in the Modi cabinet about possible outcomes of a Cabinet reshuffle.

Gadkari’s “not yet retiring” clarification followed what his aides described as a mischievous interpretation of the Road Transport Minister’s remarks made in Nagpur earlier this week. Addressing a gathering organised by his organisation Laxmanrao Mankar Trust, which runs Ekal Vidyalayas, Gadkari had said he was not in a position to take much of a workload now and would rather have the youngsters step in and take over the reins.

The statement was read by sections to say that Nitin Gadkari had decided to hang his boots.

The Nagpur strongman issued a quick retraction saying the remarks were meant for leadership transition in Laxmanrao Trust (and not the Cabinet).

Oram, seen as a parallel power centre in Odisha alongside ousted education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, also made a public statement this week saying some of his BJP colleagues were running a smear campaign in an attempt to oust him from the Cabinet.

The remarks came after one of Oram’s confidantes was arrested in Rourkela for alleged links to organised crime in the state.

That said, buzz around the future of Dharmendra Pradhan and incumbent environment minister Bhupender Yadav also refuses to die especially given the recent not so favourable developments concerning both.

While Pradhan, a key BJP strategist known for his closeness to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had to resign from the Cabinet amid growing student protests, Bhupender Yadav had to suffer a setback with the overnight sacking of four of his ministry staffers.

Power corridors are also consumed with intense speculation about the future of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal after he became the sole minister to be inducted into Nitin Nabin’s new team as BJP national treasurer.

Party insiders cite the one person, one post rule to argue that Goyal might lose his ministerial berth.

But the saffron party’s own past is full of several notable exceptions to the one person, one post rule. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is currently holding a Cabinet role and is also a member of the BJP’s Marg Darshak Mandal (alongside Modi, MM Joshi and LK Advani), member of the BJP Parliamentary Board (party’s highest decision making body) as well as of the BJP Central Election Committee.

Earlier, LK Advani as BJP president was deputy prime minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Rajnath Singh as BJP chief was Agriculture Minister in the Vajpayee dispensation; M Venkaiah Naidu as BJP chief was a Vajpayee cabinet member; BJP president Jana Krishnamurthi was also a Vajpayee government member; so was BJP president Bangaru Laxman.

Piyush Goyal himself as BJP treasurer was MoS when Narendra Modi took charge as PM in 2014. MM Joshi as BJP president was Human Resource Development minister in the Vajpayee regime.

So, the one person, one post rule is hardly cast in stone. This means Piyush Goyal may well continue as union minister while being BJP treasurer.

Informed sources also place Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in a safe zone unless they themselves offer to quit which is improbable.

All eyes are also on Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, the only Sikh face in the Modi Cabinet after the resignation of Ravneet Singh Bittu, whose Rajya Sabha term ended this June.

Two ministers of state who will indeed go from PM Modi’s council are MoS Finance Pankaj Choudhary, appointed president of election-bound Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP and MoS Road Transport Harsh Malhotra, named Delhi BJP chief.

There is equally a buzz around PM Modi inducting lateral entrants with the name of former Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran doing the rounds. It remains to be seen if PM Modi will experiment with an outsider in the education ministry after four conventional politicians - Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar, Ramesh Pokhriyal and Dharmendra Pradhan - failed to make an impact. Incumbent education minister Pralhad Joshi is only holding interim charge.