Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Apr 7: Unhappy over the performance of certain Ministers, BJP and RSS functionaries have initiated consultations to replace some of the existing faces in the Cabinet and the issue had also been discussed in detail during the recent visit of party’s national general secretary to the State.
Party sources told EXCELSIOR, “Ram Madhav, who is party’s point man for J&K affairs held detailed deliberations at Veer Bhawan with senior functionaries of the Sangh and performance of several BJP Ministers was discussed in the meeting”, adding, “there were serious allegations against some of the Ministers causing dent to the party image”.
“Besides, there was also an opinion among the participants to replace the non-performing Ministers with some new faces. Though some of the Ministers had got important portfolios, they had failed to deliver as per expectations of the party”, sources asserted.
Sources further said, “though no specific time frame has been fixed for conducting the reshuffle, it was likely to take place after elections to the Legislative Council get over. The issue is also likely to be discussed with the party’s top leadership, when they meet for the national executive Committee meeting in Bhubaneswar on April 15 and 16”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and several other Union ministers besides the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruling states are scheduled to attend the two-day event.
“The BJP general secretary in his meeting with the State leadership and RSS leaders had also expressed resentment over the failure to implement the Rs 80,000 crore worth development package. Though over one year has lapsed since the announcement of Rs 80,000 crore worth Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) for Jammu and Kashmir yet work on majority of the projects particularly in the key sectors has yet not begun”, sources asserted.
Sources in PDP pointed out that even PDP might also conduct a minor reshuffle among its Ministers after the conclusion of elections for Lok Sabha and Legislative Council. “PDP leadership has reassured former Minister and influential Shia leader, Imran Ansari a “better portfolio” and some additional Departments are also likely to be added to the Horticulture Minister, Basharat Bukhari”.
Miffed over being given ‘insignificant’ portfolios, both the Ministers had quit the Cabinet on February 16, hours after Chief Minister expanded her Council of Ministers.
Sources further elaborated, “even the PDP leadership has expressed reservation about functioning of some of Ministers associated with its coalition partner and shared the same with the BJP national General Secretary. The Chief Minister had also recently called up the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh to apprise him of the rumblings within the BJP, when there were some confusion regarding the participation of local MLA in function of Prime Minister rally after inauguration of the Chenani-Nashri tunnel on April 2”.
It is pertinent to mention that BJP has already completed its quota of 11 Ministries in the Council. It has eight Cabinet Ministers including Sajjad Lone of People’s Conference and three Ministers of State, one of them, Sunil Sharma with Independent Charge of Transport.
The PDP too has nine Cabinet Ministers and three Ministers of State including one, Farooq Andrabi, with Independent Charge of Haj and Auqaf.
Taking into account, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, total strength of the Ministry comes out at 24. Under Jammu and Kashmir laws, there can be maximum of 25 Ministers (20 per cent of the total strength of both Houses of Legislature).
In Mufti Sayeed regime, PDP had 14 Ministers including the Chief Minister and BJP 11.
The BJP had dropped two Ministers (Sukhnandan Choudhary and Pawan Gupta, Independent) while switching over from Mufti Sayeed regime to the Government headed by Mehbooba Mufti in April,2016. It had replaced them with Sham Choudhary and Ajay Nanda. The PDP had dropped four Ministers but inducted only two new faces (Zahoor Ahmad Mir and Farooq Ahmad Andrabi), keeping two vacancies for it. However, Altaf Bukhari was reinducted as Education Minister into the Cabinet on February 17 as Mehbooba carried out her first Cabinet expansion.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been holding additional charge of various Departments including Home, GAD, Planning, Tourism, Hospitality and Protocol, Estates, Civil Aviation, Information etc.
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