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Anirudha Karindalam
Anirudha Karindalam

reshuffle

Ahead of cabinet rejig, Amit Shah meets RSS top brass

31-Amit-Shah-new (File photo) BJP national president Amit Shah

Ahead of the cabinet reshuffle on September 3, BJP president Amit Shah is reportedly meeting top RSS leaders in Delhi. On Thursday, Shah had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give the final touches to the cabinet rejig. Said Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to THE WEEK, “It is at the discretion of the prime minister. I don’t want to comment at this stage as to who all would join the NDA.”

BJP’s vice president and Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha could be inducted into the cabinet. “I don’t want to comment on it,” said Jha to THE WEEK. But he said Shah is chairing a meting with RSS leaders on Friday. “Things will be clear after the meeting. I would like to see the AIADMK and the JD(U) in the NDA.”

Four Union ministers—Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey—have already resigned from the Union cabinet and have set in motion the reshuffle—most likely the last one before the 2019 elections. It is aimed at building up the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Said Sathya Pal Malik, BJP vice president to THE WEEK, “I will be happy to see as many parties join the NDA before the 2019 elections. We are moving in the right direction.”

M. Thambidurai and P. Venugopal are seen as the likely candidates from the AIADMK to join the Union cabinet. Said C.R. Saraswathi, AIADMK leader, to THE WEEK, “I belong to the Sasikala faction of the party. We have nothing to do with the decision that the chief minister of Tamil Nadu takes. Let him join the NDA if he wants."

There are rumours doing the rounds on how Modi and Shah could appoint a politician from Kerala into the cabinet. The national leadership, it is being said, is keen on state party president Kummanam Rajasekharan and Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi.

There were also news reports on how the BJP is wooing Kerala Congress leader Jose K. Mani and that he could also be inducted into the cabinet. Said Mani to THE WEEK, “This is a baseless report. My party and I would never join the NDA.”

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Topics : #Amit Shah | #RSS

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