BJP's Team Nadda: Veteran leaders dropped as office bearers, is Modi cabinet being reshuffled?

With names of several senior leaders like Ram Madhav, Anil Jain, Saroj Pandey and P Muralidhar Rao missing from the new list of national office bearers announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda on Saturday, speculation is rife that an imminent union cabinet reshuffle is on the cards.

At least 4 big names were dropped as BJP national general secretaries in Team Nadda - Ram Madhav who has been taking care of the party`s affairs in J&K, Ladakh and the northeast, Muralidhar Rao, who has been spearheading its south India affairs under the aegis of B.L. Santosh, and Rajya Sabha members Anil Jain and Saroj Pandey.

Several other senior leaders like Uma Bharati, Om Mathur, Prabhat Jha, Vinay Sahastrabhuddhe, Shyam Jaju and Avinash Rai Khanna are also missing from the new national team.

Shivraj Singh Chauhan who is now the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh is no longer BJP Vice President in the new team. Uma Bharti, Prabhat Jha, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe are also dropped as vice presidents in Team Nadda while Om Mathur, Shyam Jaju, Avinash Rai Khanna and Dushyant Gautam are also out in the new scheme of things as far as BJP`s National Vice Presidents are concerned.

Significantly, Uma Bharti recently defended Sharad Pawar when she said that his statement was against Lord Ram and not against Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the NCP supremo had said that some people think coronavirus can be eradicated by building a temple.

The BJP national secretaries list too saw a complete overhaul with leaders like H. Raja, R.P. Singh, Maheish Girri, Rahul Sinha among others being shown the door. Most of these exits are believed to be on account of their performance.

Almost all the Morcha heads - be it Poonam Mahajan of Yuva Morcha, Vinod Sonkar of SC Morcha, Ramvichar Netam of ST Morcha, and Abdul Rasheed Ansari of Minority Morcha - have been replaced.

It`s a brand new team which is completely different from Team Amit Shah. While most eliminations are clearly due to non-performance and some allegedly due to aiding the culture of camps in state organisations, a few performers like Ram Madhav and Muralidhar Rao too are out. This has prompted speculation about a possible Cabinet reshuffle and their entry into it.

Sources said a Cabinet expansion could take place in the next few weeks or after the Bihar Assembly polls.

A few of these leaders are likely to be accommodated in the new cabinet.

Party sources said that leaders from several key states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Telangana are expected to be accommodated in the expansion as the BJP aims to grow in these states in the future.

It is also learnt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also rejig the portfolios of several of his ministers.

Currently, several ministers have been burdened with multiple portfolios. This may change and some of these may be allocated to the newly inducted ministers, sources added.

The much-awaited cabinet reshuffle would be the first such rejig of the Narendra Modi cabinet after it was voted back to power in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 

(With agency inputs)