Chhattisgarh ministers appear for 'test' before Gadkari

As many as six senior ministers of Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have appeared for a performance test before party president Nitin Gadkari in Delhi, party sources said.

Gadkari late Wednesday reviewed the performance of six ministers, one at a time, at his residence and offered tips on how to counter the opposition Congress's corruption charges.

He also made valued suggestions to bolster relations between the party and the government, necessary for the BJP to score a winning hat-trick in the assembly polls due in the state in late 2013, party insiders said.

The BJP has been in power in the state since December 2003.

"Gadkari had a nice friendly meeting Wednesday night with Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Brijmohan Agarwal, Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar, Agriculture Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ramvichar Netam, Water Resources Minister Hemchand Yadav and Housing and Environment Minister Rajesh Munat," a senior party leader told IANS.

The party chief, he added, also questioned the ministers on the data they tabled on their respective portfolios.

"Gadkari had mostly insisted that BJP ministers should maintain a clean image for the larger interests of the party, especially when the BJP is trying to build a movement against the Congress-led regime at the centre on the corruption issue," said a minister who attended the interaction.

There are 12 ministers in the Raman Singh government and the other six ministers are also expected to be put through the performance test.

Senior leaders said the exercise could lead to a change in the council of ministers with only the performers being retained.