PATNA: BJP MLA Gyanendra Singh Gyanu was miffed over selection of new ministers from his own party. Hours before the cabinet expansion on Tuesday, Gyanu accused the ‘middle level’ functionaries in his party of allowing ‘people with criminal antecedents and without experience’ to be inducted in the cabinet.
Gyanu, the four-time MLA from Barh, also said upper castes are being ignored by the BJP, for which the party may have to face adverse impact in the future. He claimed that more than a dozen MLAs had called him in the morning to express their unhappiness.
“Caste combination and regional balance has not been given due consideration in the cabinet expansion. Besides, inexperienced and chargesheeted people have been made ministers while those who have their own identity and better understanding of things have been left out,” Gyanu told TOI.
Speaking on the caste combination, Gyanu said: “BJP has been banking on upper caste votes and now sidelining their representatives. Altogether 17 BJP MLAs are Rajputs, but only two were inducted in the cabinet today. Besides, neither of the two deputy CMs are from upper castes. BJP is now being made a party of Baniyas and Yadavs.”
Speaking on the regional imbalance, he said many commissionaries do not have even a single minister, while districts like Darbhanga have three ministers.
Gyanu alleged that some middle level netas are doing this by misguiding PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah Ji. Apart from leaders from the state, they are also responsible for it. It seems they want to see the BJP in Bihar like in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan or Chhatisgarh, he said.
Gyanu said he tried to call BJP’s state incharge Bhupendra Yadav on Monday night, but couldn’t get through. He went on to say that it will aversely impact the party in the coming elections. “They (BJP) already don’t have backward caste votes ... Almost 50% of the BJP people, who won in the last elections, are from upper castes, but proportionate representation in the cabinet has not been given to them. They (BJP) will lose upper caste votes in the coming elections, if things go like this,” he claimed.
BJP functionaries, however, denied Gyanu’s allegations. “The party has struck a social, regional and geographical balance in terms of ministerial allocation. All sections have been given sufficient representations,” BJP’s state general secretary Devesh Kumar said.
Another BJP functionary on condition of anonymity said 15 out of total 30 ministers in the NDA government are from the upper castes. “Four ministers are from Gyanu’s own Rajput community. Thus, there is no point of making a fuss about it,” he said.
BJP’s Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who is also a Rajput, told reporters: “I believe the list of ministers in the cabinet expansion is quite balanced and they will ensure development of Bihar.”