by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
The Rising clout of Anurag Thakur
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Oct 31
Gods are finally smiling on the young Minister of State for Finance & corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and his clout is rising by the day in the party. He was in political wilderness for all these years despite being the three term Lok Sabha MP. He was a minister hopeful in the first Modi government but missed the bus because his father Prem Kumar Dhumal was Chief Minister. So far so good. When Dhumal lost election last year, it was expected that he will be rehabilitated. But the luck was not on his side. He had also lost the post of the Chairman BCCI under the Lodha Committee dispensation. But times have changed ever since he was inducted in the Modi. 2 government. His big clout came to the fore when he played a key role in getting Saurabh Ganguly elected as the new president of the BCCI. His younger brother became the treasurer while Amit Shah's son Jay Shah became Board's Secretary. It was his proximity with Amit Shah and performance that is now paying rich dividends. It was Anurag Thakur who played a key role in ensuring the defection of Neeraj Shekhar from SP to BJP. Neeraj is part of Young Parliamentarians group comprising of Supriya Sule, Nishikant Dubey, Dushyant Chautala and from other parties. It was Anurag Thakur who brokered the deal with Dushyant Chautala, president of the JJP whose party won 10 Assembly seats in Haryana. Since BJP was looking for a stable government after securing only 40 seats, Anurag Thakur held a marathon meeting with Dushyant who came to his 18 Janpath residence and then they drove to Amit Shah's house. The party chief was so desperate for the deal that he return to the Capital from Ahemdabad midway to seal the deal. This was a phenomenal rise for Dushyant too who had lost Lok Sabha polls in May 2019 and was fighting a bitter battle for survival with his uncle Abhay Chautala of INLD.
Politically, its a deadly combination of non Jats and Jats in Haryana with BJP leading it from the front. The BJP returned to power despite losing majority. This enhanced Anurag Thakur's clout and clearly, among the BJP's young ministers in the Union Ministers he has emerged a favoruite.
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