NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday night held a meeting of his council of ministers for four hours amid speculation of 10 ministers shifted to the BJP organisation or moved to the states due for Assembly elections this year, prior to the Lok Sabha election in April next year.
There is a speculation that the nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar, who took oath as the deputy CM for the third time, may be promoted to be the Maharashtra Chief Minister as present chief minister Eknath Shinde (59) of Shiv Sena, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis (52) and NCP leader Praful Patel may be inducted as the Union Cabinet minister. Ajit Pawar was leader of Opposition till July 1.
After assessing the ground reality that Ajit and eight others who took oath as miniters do not have the numbers required for continuation as he does not have the minimum 36 MLAs out of the NCP MLAs’ strength of 53, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar asked the state BJP chief Jayant Patil to give notice for disqualification of all nine under the anti-defection law.
In a fight-back, Ajit removed Patil from the post within no time of his letter removing him fro the NCP. Sources here said Ajit tried to make up with his uncle Sharad Pawar on finding the MLAs come out in support started returning to Sharad Pawar. On the day of oath taking by Ajit, there were 13 MLAs with him but his strength plunged to 10 that may attract his disqualification.
The Prime Minister was reportedly discussing the performance of the union ministers here Monday night before deciding whom to drop or shift for organisational or state responsibilities. He was, however, concerned over Ajit not ablee to get the required numbers. This is the follow-up meeting he is holding after a high-level meeeting already held on June 28, involving Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda among other seniors, to take stock of the organisational and political affairs.
The BJP has been making hectic preparations for several state polls scheduled this year. Elections are due in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram later this year.
The party has been also working on creating division in the Janata Dal(U) in Bihar to put Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in trouble to upset the preparations of the opposition parties ganging up to fight the Lok Sabha election unitedly to oust Modi from power.
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