With a hope to get a ministerial post in the Narendra Modi Government, aspirants are camping in New Delhi holding meetings with national president Rajnath Singh and calling on PM-designate Modi in Gujarat Bhawan to bolster their chances.
Though these meetings are dubbed courtesy calls, they have deep-rooted meaning. Indications are that Modi does not want a big Cabinet so he will have six Ministers from Uttar Pradesh. Sources claim that Modi wants all of them to be from lok Sabha.
“The BJP parliamentary meeting is on May 20 so all newly-elected MPs are in New Delhi. Yes, some MPs came a bit early and some reached here on Monday,” Bharat Singh, BJP MP from Ballia, told The Pioneer over phone.
Choosing Ministers from UP will be a jig-saw puzzle for Modi. Besides striking a balance on the caste line, the Prime Minister-designate will have to consider the seniority of leaders before picking them for ministerial posts.
The list of aspirants for the ministerial post is long — from Murli Manohar Joshi to Uma Bharti and from Kalraj Mishra to Shakshi Maharaj, all are aspiring to become Ministers in the Modi Cabinet. Then there is Hukum Singh, who was leader of BJP legislature Party in UP. He is also a hopeful. Besides, Gen (Retd) VK Singh is tipped to become the new Defence Minister.
The Dalits have shifted base this time in Uttar Pradesh. They had voted for the BJP increasing its vote share from 17 per cent in 2009 to 42 per cent in 2014. Thus, they cannot be ignored during the Government formation.