New Delhi: After BJP meet, buzz over Cabinet rejig

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 8

The BJP leadership’s three-day marathon meeting that concluded in the Capital late on Tuesday has triggered a buzz about a possible restructuring of the party organisation as well as the Union Council of Ministers ahead of the crucial election season.

Reshuffle likely next month

• The meeting was attended by BJP chief JP Nadda, party general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah
• It discussed the state of the BJP in election-bound Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, and other key states such as Bihar
• A restructuring of the party and the Union Cabinet reshuffle could happen in July; the last Cabinet rejig took place in July 2021

The meeting, attended by BJP president JP Nadda, party general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, discussed the state of the BJP in election-bound Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, and other key states such as Maharashtra and Bihar, where the party’s alliance equations have significantly altered.

BJP CMs’ meeting on June 11

PM Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership will on June 11 engage with Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states at the annual ‘mukhya mantri sammelan’. The last such meeting was held in July 2022.

Top sources said the meeting of the three top leaders elicited inputs from senior state leaders of poll-bound states, including former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje who met Santosh on Wednesday to discuss poll preparedness in the state. Raje, who commands significant influence in Rajasthan, is in for a major role in state poll preparations even though the party appears veered towards fighting the Assembly elections under a collective leadership with several claimants to the CM’s chair.

The Tribune has learnt that three-day meeting deliberated on overhauling the state units, with electoral equations in mind ahead of the five Assembly elections this year and the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. The three leaders have sent their feedback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who might want to factor it in if he decides to reshuffle the Cabinet that has been due for long.

A restructuring of the party and the Union Cabinet reshuffle could happen in July, according to BJP sources.

PM Modi has reshuffled his Council of Ministers only once in his second term, as against thrice in the first term. The last Cabinet rejig took place in July 2021.

The overhaul of the Council of Ministers seems imminent, with the BJP expected to accommodate new leaders after changed alliance dynamics in Bihar and Maharashtra, besides weighing in political gains in states where the elections are due.

The Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is likely to get representation in the Cabinet as and when the reshuffle happens, while some veterans who joined the BJP from other parties such as the JD-U in Bihar could also be accommodated, said sources.

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