Big Buzz in Capital over impending Cabinet reshuffle

It could be this weekend?

No news with Rashtrapati Bhawan so far  

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

With the month-long exercise of performance of 22 Cabinet Ministers and nine Ministers of State (Independent Charge) over yesterday, speculations intensified in the Cabinet of a major over-haul and expansion of the 54-member Council of Ministers.

The PM had already held consultations with the top leadership of the party, RSS and many chief ministers of the states including Shivraj Singh Chouhan. It is also stated that the PM also explored the possibility of bridging differences with the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is now ready that Janata Dal (U) joins the party. JDU leaders Lallan Singh, Ramnath Thakur and Santosh Kushwaha are reportedly in the running. The Apna Dal of UP is also set to re-join the council with Anupriya Patel in it. Both the factions of the LJP will be kept out.

A couple of Ministers with Independent Charge may be promoted to the Cabinet too.

Jyotiraditya Scindia (Madhya Pradesh) Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam), Dilip Ghose (West Bengal), Sushil Modi (Bihar), Bhupendra Yadav (Rajasthan), Varun Gandhi (UP), Zafar Islam (UP) Ajay Bhatt or Anil Baluni (Uttarakhand) and a few from poll-bound states may be brought in.

The focus will be inducting some young faces keeping long-term interests of the party. There may be at least six new young faces. The names of Rahul Kaswan (Rajasthan), Ashwani Vaishnav (Odisha), Poonam Mahajan or Pritam Munde (Maharashtra) and Parvesh Varma or Meenakshi Lekhi (Delhi) are doing the rounds.

At least three ministers may be dropped while the portfolios of nine ministers holding many additional charges may be taken away. Will a Chief Minister be brought to Delhi, no one has a clue. Nine ministers with additional charge may shed extra ministries - Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari, Harsh Vardhan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani and Hardeep Singh Puri.

RS ticket behind Scindia tantrums

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

RS ticket behind Scindia tantrums 

BJP ready to welcome Jyotiraditya 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Nov 26

A Rajya Sabha ticket seems to be at the heart of bitter battle within the Madhya Pardesh Congress and cause of recent twitter storm involving senior party functionary Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Biennial poll for three Rajya Sabha seats is due to be held in April 2020.

The Congress, with 115 MLAs in the House of 230, can easily elect elect one member while the BJP will also win one seat with the backing of 107 MLAs. The bitter battle will be witnessed for the third seat which could go either way. Digvijay Singh is retiring in April 2020 and a natural claimant for the re-nomination. Kamal Nath can ill-afford to deny him the ticket. Though its for the high command to select the candidates for two out of the three seats. But given the ticklish political situation in the state, the high command is likely to leave it at the wisdom of the state leadership to take a call on candidates.

Sensing that he may not have a place in Rajya Sabha next year and any major role to play in state politics, he felt increasingly isolated. With Rahul Gandhi taking a back seat, he is now finding going tough at the AICC level too.

It is in this background that rumours were rife for months that Scindia may walk out of the Congress and join the BJP. He has been having a running battle with the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. Scindia was even denied the post of MPCC chief's post too.

An annoyed Scindia, changed his profile on the twitter where he removed his past association with the Congress and merely said:“Public servant, cricket enthusiast.” Though he clarified later that the changes were made a month ago and no politics be attributed to it.

When asked a senior BJP leader said, “Its up to the party high command to take a decision. But there is no recommendation from the state leadership in this regard.”

Two of his aunts; Vasudhara Raje Scindia and Yashodhara Raje Scindia are already in the BJP and playing a key role. The BJP is not averse to his joining the party particularly when it is following an “open door policy.”

After all, he is the only surviving Maratha dynasty though its property battle is being fought amongst the family members.

The real estate empire of the House of Scindias empire is worth Rs 20,000 crore alone.

Ends

1+4 formula to end Congress crisis

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

1+4 formula to end Congress crisis

Four vice presidents under one Interim president 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, July 12

Amidst contuning crisis in Karnataka, a formula is underway to resolve the vacuum in the 150 year grand old party. If reports are to be believed, final touches are being given to the “one plus four formula”

to end 50-day old crisis which began with the sudden resignation of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

After a series of deliberations within the Gandhi family members involving Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and family loyalists like A K Antony, Dr Manmohan Singh and a couple of others, the 1+4 formula is finding favour.

This formula is that an interim president be appointed by the Congress working committee (CWC) until the organisational elections are completed as per the constitution of the party. It is now clear that the CWC meeting will be called sometime next week as the formula has taken a shape and nitty-gritty is being fixed. The CWC is the party's top decision making body and empowered to take all the decisions in the current crisis-ridden situation. The CWC may be held at the instance of Motilal Vora, senior-most general secretary of the party or Mukul Wasnik, who is currently general secretary (organisation).

With UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi firmly refusing to lead the party as interim president and Priyanka Gandhi is also being ruled out, Mallikarjun Kharge's name is finding favour. Since A K Antony firmly refused to don the mantle and Sushil Kumar Shinde has lagged behind, its Kharge who has emerged stronger given the situation. .

Once Kharge's name is decided, there will be four Vice Presidents under him representing four regions- East, West, North & South. This is what Rahul Gandhi is reported to have tossed the idea before his confidants when he met them last week.

One of the Vice presidents could be Priyanka Vadra (North), Gaurav Gogoi (North East), Mukul Wasnik (West) or Jyotiraditya Scindia and K C Venugopal (South). Venugopal was incharge of Kerala and Tamil Nadu during the Lok sabha polls and came out with flying colours.

There was also a suggestion that Capt. Amrinder Singh be brought in as Interim president. But he is disinclined due to poor health and quitting the CM's post at this juncture. Though there are many in the party who believe that his acceptability is larger at this juncture and he would be able to give a fitting reply to the BJP too. In the event of Priyanka Gandhi opting out, the name of Selja is doing the rounds.