PM Modi meets Amit Shah, JP Nadda amid buzz on Cabinet expansion at Centre too

NEW DELHI: The BJP’s attempts to energise its organisation and governments at the Centre and Lucknow gained pace on Friday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding extensive discussions with Union home minister Amit Shah and party chief J P Nadda. 

They got into a huddle after UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met Modi and Nadda separately, amid indications that the party brass will take full command of the poll preparations in the battleground state. 
The much delayed Cabinet expansion at the Centre, filling of vacancies in the BJP Parliamentary Board and organisational issues in the specific context of UP, were learnt to be on the meeting agenda.

The BJP’s attempt to make course corrections by wooing smaller parties that were previously allies but drifted away due to differences with Adityanath, could be reflected in the Cabinet expansions both at the Centre and UP, sources said.

While the Prime Minister’s Office completed its performance appraisal of the Union ministers early last year, the expected shake-up in the team was put off primarily because of the Covid challenge, said sources. They added that the BJP is now keen to give visibility to NDA allies.

The list of the Union Cabinet hopefuls has grown, with former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal joining the likes of Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sushil Kumar Modi, besides NDA ally JD (U). And the Parliamentary Board has four vacancies. 

A common theme emerging out of consultations between RSS and BJP leaders recently is the need for an image makeover of the government at the Centre with the induction of new faces.