News Analysis India

Tag: NDA

  • Leaders reaching Delhi, appointment of guvs, new ministry: Loaded signals for big Cabinet expansion

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for the expansion of the council of ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government on Tuesday unveiling a new Ministry of Cooperatives along with the appointment of Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot as Karnataka Governor. 

    The Prime Minister’s Office has been individually calling the selected candidates to join the council of ministers over phone, with some already reaching the national capital on Tuesday. Gehlot has been suitably accommodated as he was the Scheduled Caste face of the NDA. After a back and forth parleys, a grumbling JD (U) appears to have decided to join the government.

    The JD (U) was earlier seeking parity with the BJP’s Bihar representation in the Union ministry by insisting on two Cabinet and two MoS berths. The other Bihar element in the ministry is expected to be Pashupati Paras, who captured the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) from under the nose of Chirag Paswan. 

    Late Tuesday evening, the government informed that it has created the new ministry to strengthen the co-op movement. The government had earlier created the Ministry of Jal Shakti. “This ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country,” the government said.

    The reshuffle is likely to involve a good number of ministers of state ranks besides filling a few Cabinet berths. Among those who would most probably make it are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal and Narayan Rane. Apart from allies like the JD (U) and the LJP, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal is likely to get a berth. BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal from Ladakh is also seen as a ministerial hopeful. 

    However, speculation on Shiv Sena returning to the NDA ended with party chief Uddhav Thackeray finally saying there cannot be any accord with the BJP. Caste arithmetic matters in the scheme of things, as the BJP pointed out that of the eight women Governors and Lt Governors it has appointed since 2014, five belong to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.

    That math will be part of the larger strategy for Wednesday’s ministerial expansion so to balance social equations and state representations with an eye on elections next year. With the prime minister having clearly shown his preference for professionals in his team like S Jaishankar and Hardeep Puri, a surprise entry from outside politics isn’t ruled out. From the JD (U), Rajeev Ranjan Singh and R C P Singh are seen to be in the reckoning for the berths. 

    A few of the ministers are likely to be dropped following their performance appraisal, while key loyalists of Union home minister Amit Shah, including Anil Jain and Bhupender Yadav, are being seen as hopefuls to join the government. Portfolios like Commerce, Industry, Food and Consumer Affairs, Food processing, Social Justice, Civil Aviation, I&B are up for grabs, while changing ministries of a few ministers is also not ruled out. 

  • Leaders reaching Delhi, apointment of governors, new ministry: Loaded signals for big Cabinet expansion

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for the expansion of the council of ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government on Tuesday unveiling a new Ministry of Cooperatives along with the appointment of Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot as Karnataka Governor. 

    The Prime Minister’s Office has been individually calling the selected candidates to join the council of ministers over phone, with some already reaching the national capital on Tuesday. Gehlot has been suitably accommodated as he was the Scheduled Caste face of the NDA. After a back and forth parleys, a grumbling JD (U) appears to have decided to join the government.

    The JD (U) was earlier seeking parity with the BJP’s Bihar representation in the Union ministry by insisting on two Cabinet and two MoS berths. The other Bihar element in the ministry is expected to be Pashupati Paras, who captured the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) from under the nose of Chirag Paswan. 

    Late Tuesday evening, the government informed that it has created the new ministry to strengthen the co-op movement. The government had earlier created the Ministry of Jal Shakti. “This ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country,” the government said.

    The reshuffle is likely to involve a good number of ministers of state ranks besides filling a few Cabinet berths. Among those who would most probably make it are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal and Narayan Rane. Apart from allies like the JD (U) and the LJP, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal is likely to get a berth. BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal from Ladakh is also seen as a ministerial hopeful. 

    However, speculation on Shiv Sena returning to the NDA ended with party chief Uddhav Thackeray finally saying there cannot be any accord with the BJP. Caste arithmetic matters in the scheme of things, as the BJP pointed out that of the eight women Governors and Lt Governors it has appointed since 2014, five belong to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.

    That math will be part of the larger strategy for Wednesday’s ministerial expansion so to balance social equations and state representations with an eye on elections next year. With the prime minister having clearly shown his preference for professionals in his team like S Jaishankar and Hardeep Puri, a surprise entry from outside politics isn’t ruled out. From the JD (U), Rajeev Ranjan Singh and R C P Singh are seen to be in the reckoning for the berths. 

    A few of the ministers are likely to be dropped following their performance appraisal, while key loyalists of Union home minister Amit Shah, including Anil Jain and Bhupender Yadav, are being seen as hopefuls to join the government. Portfolios like Commerce, Industry, Food and Consumer Affairs, Food processing, Social Justice, Civil Aviation, I&B are up for grabs, while changing ministries of a few ministers is also not ruled out. 

  • Bihar CM Nitish Kumar doesn’t rule out JDU joining union government, ducks queries on formula

    By PTI
    PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility of his JDU joining the Narendra Modi government during its likely expansion but insisted it was the party’s national president who will take a call on the number of berths acceptable to it.

    Talking to reporters here, Kumar said expansion of the Union council of ministers was a prerogative of the prime minister and that he “did not have much information” about what was being offered to his party.

    “I relinquished the party’s national president’s post a few months ago. Current president RCP Singh has been authorised to take a call in the matter. Only he can share the details,” the chief minister, the party’s de facto leader, said with a smile playing on his lips.

    When pointed out that he had disapproved of the BJP’s offer of “token representation” for allies in the government after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Kumar quipped, “I was then the national president of the party, a post which I no longer hold.”

    Responding to a query as to whether his party was likely to stick to its previous stand of not joining the Union council of ministers, the JDU leader said, “I do not think at any point of time it has been said that our party will never join the Union Cabinet.”

    He deflected questions about speculation in the media that the JD(U), which has become the largest ally of the BJP after Shiv Sena’s exit from NDA, was bargaining for three to four berths. “These are things you should be asking RCP Singh,” he said.

    Incidentally, Singh, a former IAS officer, has risen to the top postion in the party within a decade of taking the political plunge, and is seen as a frontrunner for a Cabinet berth. The chief minister also said he was all set to revive his public interaction programme ‘Janata Ke Darbar Mein Mukhyamantri’ from next week.

    “Of course, there will be some constraints in view of the corona pandemic. Citizens who appear on any given day with their grievances will be extended all facilities, including transport,” Kumar said.

  • Tejashwi, Tej Pratap take Sputnik jabs; face NDA taunts over choosing ‘foreign’ brand

    By PTI
    PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who had been facing flak from the ruling NDA in Bihar for his reluctance to get vaccinated against COVID-19, on Wednesday took the jab along with elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav.

    Both the sons of RJD national president Lalu Prasad took their Sputnik shots at the Medanta hospital here.

    “We took the Sputnik vaccine, A vaccine is a vaccine. What difference does it make whether it is Indian or foreign”, Yadav told reporters afterwards.

    पटना स्थित मेदांता अस्पताल में अपने भाई @yadavtejashwi के साथ कोरोना का टीका लगवाया।आप सब भी लगवाएँ। pic.twitter.com/PigLmFACgi
    — Tej Pratap Yadav (@TejYadav14) June 30, 2021

    Minutes after the two took the shots, former minister and JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar issued a sarcastic video statement.

    “They are born in a rich family, to a father with tainted background who is a convict in a case of economic offence. No wonder they find Sputnik, developed in Russia, and not indigenous Covishield or Covaxin, to their taste”, the JD(U) leader remarked, making an oblique reference to Lalu Prasads involvement in the fodder scam.

    ALSO READ | Congress should be fulcrum of any national coalition against NDA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav

    Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior BJP leader, and former deputy chief minister, came out with a flurry of tweets saying the sons of Lalu Prasad took the jabs “belatedly” and they should now convince their father, and mother Rabri Devi, to get vaccinated.

    “If Lalu Prasad is already vaccinated, the information should be made public. It would send across a positive message among the public. Also, Tejashwi, the leader of the opposition and Tej Pratap, an ex-minister for health, would have done better to have chosen a government hospital for taking the jabs”, Modi said.

    He pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and many other dignitaries have taken the shots at public health facilities and the brother duo “should avoid lending their heft to branding of private hospitals which are beyond the reach of the poor”.

    Incidentally, on the previous day when asked about the delay in getting vaccinated, Tejashwi Yadav had shot back “what is the hurry. I fall in the 18-44 years age group. This is the last category”.

    ALSO WATCH:

  • Congress should be fulcrum of any national coalition against NDA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress is a national party with a pan-India presence and it is quite natural that it should be the fulcrum of any national coalition against the BJP-led NDA, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said on Sunday.

    In an interview with PTI, he also said that the Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP on more than 200 Lok Sabha seats and should focus on them while allowing regional parties to be in the driver’s seat in the other constituencies.

    Asked about the meeting of Opposition leaders and several civil society members at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Shared Pawar’s house here last week, the RJD leader said he was not aware what transpired in the meeting.

    However, the former Bihar deputy chief minister asserted that definitely all like-minded parties should come together with a common minimum programme to defeat “this most oppressive, divisive, authoritarian and fascist government”.

    “Our leader Lalu (Yadav) Ji had forewarned in the run up to 2014 election- ‘Ye chunaw tay karega ki desh tootega ya bachega (this election will decide whether the country will remain or be divided)’, and I think most of the parties and citizens of our country have realised this today like never before,” Yadav said.

    On the Congress not having a presence at the meeting and whether the grand old party should be part of a national alliance to take on the BJP, he said the Congress is a national party with a pan-India presence and quite naturally it “should be the fulcrum of any national coalition against the BJP-led NDA”.

    The Congress is in direct fight with BJP on more than 200 seats, not the regional parties, Yadav said.

    “From past experiences, I think the Congress must focus on those seats wherein it is in direct fight with the BJP and on remaining seats with an open heart and mind it should let regional parties be in the driving seat in their respective strongholds to root out the BJP,” he argued.

    His remarks assume significance as they come just days after Pawar said the Congress will need to be taken along if any alternative alliance is to be formed.

    Significantly, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday had also said that work is on to bring all opposition parties together at the national level, and this alliance will be incomplete without the Congress.

    He had said that the Congress will play an important role in the alliance that aims to provide a strong alternative to the present dispensation.

    NCP chief Pawar on Friday had claimed that formation of any national alliance was not the topic of discussion at the meeting of eight opposition parties hosted by him, but also said that if any such coalition emerges, its leadership will have to be “collective”.

    He had told reporters that the aim of the meeting at his Delhi residence last Tuesday was to discuss how they can support the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

    Speculation was rife that the agenda of the meeting, where no Congress leader was present, was to discuss a possible alliance which could be an alternative to the BJP.

    Asked what would be the form of any future alliance against the BJP and what would be the Congress’s place in it, Pawar had said, “There was no discussion on this, however, in my view the Congress will be needed to be taken along if any alternative alliance is to be formed.”

  • Bihar govt will fall in next 2 to 3 months, claims RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Just a day after return from New Delhi, Bihar’s Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on Friday stirred the state politics predicting about the fall of Nitish Kumar-led government in next 2 to 3 months.

    Yadav made this claim speaking to the residents of Raghopur in Vaishali. 

    When some residents demanded for a development work to be done at Raghopur, Tejashwi Yadav said: “Wait for while. The government will fall in next 2 to 3 months and then it will be done.”

    The statement came two days after national president of JD-U RCP Singh claimed that the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government will complete it’s five years of term.

    Reacting to the statement, JD-U leader Nikhil Mandal said that Tejashwi Yadav has taken to the habit of daydreaming to come in power.

    “Nitish Kumar–led NDA government will complete its full terms as it is because of natural political alliance,” he added.

    Earlier, arguing for not taking the vaccine, the RJD leader had said that until 70 per cent of the population is vaccinated, he will not take vaccine. 

    Over this statement, former deputy CM of Bihar and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi accused Tejashwi Yadav of misleading and creating confusion about vaccine amongst the people out of political motif. “By this statement on vaccine, Tejashwi Yadav has made his political intention clear. Actually supporting Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi wants to run Corona vaccine as a political agenda along with other opposition parties. It has become a kind of political job of such leaders to defame the central government by derailing the vaccination campaign,” Modi alleged.

    Meanwhile, sources said that the NDA leaders might be claiming everything well within the NDA but fact is that growing political affinity between LJP leader Chirag Paswan and RJD Tejashwi Yadav after the leadership coup in the LJP allegedly at the behest of JDU has become a cause of concern for the NDA leaders.

    Before Tejashwi Yadav’s prediction, LJP leader Chirag Paswan had also commented about the fall of NDA government in Bihar. Chirag Paswan had also called upon the party leaders (before split in LJP) to be prepared for the midterm of assembly elections in Bihar. 

  • Tejashwi asks Chirag Paswan to quit NDA; blames JDU for the split in LJP

    By PTI
    PATNA: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday held out an olive branch to Chirag Paswan, saying the beleaguered LJP leader must reconsider his continuance in the NDA, led by the BJP which swore by the RSS ideology instead of the Constitution.

    The leader of the opposition also charged the ruling JD(U) in Bihar with being the “mastermind” behind the split in the LJP, which has left Chirag cornered within the party headed by him till recently and founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.

    Yadav, who was talking to reporters at the airport here upon his return from New Delhi after a long stay, also sought to remind Chirag that in 2005 and 2010 similar splits had been engineered by the JD(U) in the LJP while his father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad had “helped Ram Vilas get a Rajya Sabha berth when he had lost his own Lok Sabha seat”.

    “Chirag Paswan must now decide whom he wants to stand with those abiding by the Bunch of Thoughts (a famous polemical work by RSS ideologue M S Golwalkar) or those for whom the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar is supreme”, said Yadav.

    When pointed out that the JD(U), controlled by its de facto leader Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, claimed that it knew “nothing” about the crisis in the LJP which witnessed a revolt by Chirags uncle and former state minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, Yadav responded mordantly.

    “Nitish Kumar never knows anything. Perhaps he does not even read the papers. He must be unaware that in 27 out of 38 districts of Bihar, the price of petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre”, Yadav remarked.

    When asked about the ruling partys criticism of his protracted absence from Bihar, Yadav, who led the RJD to an impressive performance in the last assembly polls, asserted that he had been away to look after his ailing father.

    “The ruling dispensation must be aware that I am a beta (son) besides being a neta (leader). Moreover, what would I have been able to do for the people here when even those in power had been forbidden from venturing out”, Yadav said, in an oblique reference to a circular issued by the state cabinet secretariat whereby ministers had been asked to refrain from undertaking tours during the COVID-induced lockdown.

    He also said doctors attending his father, one of the most colourful and keenly-watched politicians of the state, have hinted that he might be able to come to Patna “very soon”.

    Prasad, convicted in many fodder scam cases, has been staying in the national capital upon his release from jail following bail granted by Jharkhand High Court.

  • JDU ‘ready’ to join Union Cabinet this time, says chief RCP Singh

    By Express News Service
    PATNA: It is now a foregone conclusion that Bihar’s ruling JDU will join the Union Cabinet whenever its expansion is carried out following the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    The buzz is that the JD-U, which has 16 MPs, will get berths this time keeping the political equation in the mind for next the 2024 parliamentary elections.

    “The JDU, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is part of the National Democrcatic Allinace (NDA) both in centre and the state. Thus, it is natural under alliance for the JDU to be in the union cabinet. We are ready for it,” national president of JDU RCP Singh told the media on Monday.

    Singh, further, said that it is up to CM Nitish Kumar to decide as whom from the party will join the union cabinet. 

    “For this, there is no formula to join the Union Cabinet as such,” he categorically stated. 

    In reply to a specific query of the media, Singh said that the JDU is an ally of NDA in centre and not a trade organisation. “Naturally, what an ally in government deserves to get will naturally come. Our alliance is for development and it will complete its five year-term in Bihar also,” the bureaucrat-turned politician said.

    Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will leave for New Delhi on Tuesday amid speculations that he may meet with senior BJP leaders and a formal discussion may take place over the next expansion of cabinet and the proportion of JDU participation in it. But senior JDU leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh denied this speculation and said the chief minister will go to New Delhi on his personal tour for his eye check-up with a doctor.

    At the time of government of first cabinet of NDA govt in centre in 2019, the JDU had refused to be in the cabinet saying that the party deserved a ‘proportional participation in the cabinet.’ The JDU was reportedly offered one berth in the cabinet against the demand for three. But, if sources are to be believed, after Bihar assembly elections in which the JDU had suffered political loss slipping to the third spot in terms number of seats won, the bargaining ration in the JDU has been somewhat contained.

     According to sources, whenever the cabinet is expanded, one to two ministers would be from the JD-U quota this time-mostly likely RCP Singh and Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh- both are MPs of JDU and considered closest to CM Nitish Kumar.

    But RCP Singh and Rajiv Ranjan Singh separately told that it is the prerogative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to decide the time of the cabinet expansion.

  • Pashupati Kumar Paras elected LJP leader in Lok Sabha after rebel MPs seek ouster of Chirag Paswan

    Express News Service
    PATNA: In what appears to be a carefully planned move, five of the six MPs of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Monday united against LJP founder late Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan and elected Pashupati Kumar Paras as their leader. 

    Paras is the youngest brother of the late leader. 

    This is part of a series of moves in the LJP which have jolted party scion Chirag Paswan. 

    Chirag’s unceremonious removal comes after months of disgruntlement among other party leaders who felt the young politician’s functioning was autocratic. According to sources, the five MPs held a secret meeting on Saturday evening to give finishing touches to their plan. Later, they submitted a letter to Lok

    Chirag PaswanSabha speaker Om Birla demanding recognition for the new LJP faction with Paras as its national president. 

    “I have not executed a spilt in the party. Rather, I have saved the party so that it doesn’t deviate from the path shown by late Ram Vilas Paswan,” Paras told reporters. He added that 99% LJP leaders and workers wanted to contest the last Bihar Assembly election as an NDA ally but Chirag decided to go in the opposite direction. “As a result, the LJP suffered a lot politically, virtually reducing the party base in Bihar to zero. Now, we will be with the NDA in Bihar and the Centre,” Paras said.

    ALSO READ | Chirag Paswan has reaped what he had sown: JDU after fallout in LJP

    Expressing the new line of the party, Paras also lauded Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as ‘vikas purush’.Earlier in the day, Chirag tried to meet his uncle but was made to wait at the gate for over 15 minutes before he was let in. He spent nearly two hours there but could not meet Paras as he was not at home. 

  • Union Cabinet expansion: Chirag Paswan’s loss could be gain for JDU 

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Bihar’s political circle is abuzz as the ruling JD-U is likely to get two ministerial berths in the NDA union cabinet.

    National president of the Janata Dal (United) RCP Singh had said on Saturday that his party, being a constituent of the NDA, deserves to get a berth if the Centre decides to expand the Union cabinet. 

    “Whenever there is an expansion, JD-U must get a share in the cabinet,” Singh, who is considered to be next to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the party, said.

    An internal source from the NDA said that the cabinet expansion is likely to be held and the ruling BJP wants to accommodate some allies in the cabinet.

    It is believed that JD-U will be given two berths in view of the forthcoming election in UP, where Kurmi votes are crucial in the eastern parts.

    NDA leaders in Bihar speculate two ministries – Consumer Affair, Food and Public Distribution and the Commerce and Industry – which are now managed by Railway minister Piyush Goyal, can go to Nitish’s party.

    Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh and RCP Singh are likely to get the ministerial responsibilities.

    It was following the death of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan that the charge of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution went to Piyush Goyal.

    “If Chirag Paswan is not accommodated following the protest of Bihar’s ruling ally JD-U in the cabinet, it is likely that both these berths may go to JD-U”, a reliable source from NDA said.