NEW DELHI, 30 January 2003 — Eight ministers were dropped from the Indian government and as many brought in yesterday in a comprehensive Cabinet reshuffle aimed at making the ruling Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fighting fit for a string of coming elections.
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam administered the oaths of office to the eight new ministers in the presidential palace, attended by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and others.
Those inducted were Arun Jaitley, C.P. Thakur, Sanghapriya Gautam, Dileep Gandhi, Dilip Singh Judev, Chhattarpal Singh, Bhavnaben Chikhalia and Jas Kaur Meena.
Senior ministers Pramod Mahajan, Uma Bharati and Jana Krishnamurthy were among those taken out of the government and enlisted for organizational responsibilities in the 10th and most sweeping reshuffle since the BJP came to power for the third time in 1999.
Advani, the key strategist in this recast who is emerging as the most powerful leader in the BJP, said the changes were a result of a lot of thinking and would serve to cement the BJP ahead of state assembly elections this year and national elections next year.
"This will help strengthen the party and ensure that the government and the party work together," he told reporters. "Senior people have been brought to the party to prepare for polls and those who have worked hard in the party are being given a chance in the government."
Advani said this reshuffle was in continuation of the major organizational and government revamp taken up last June-July that saw him assume the mantle of deputy prime minister following a leadership conclave in Goa.
Yesterday’s exercise involved only the BJP and none of its nearly two dozen allies that together make up the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Around a third of the BJP’s 181 MPs are in the government.
The biggest gainer in the shake-up is seen to be Jaitley, who returns to the Cabinet at the helm of the weighty ministries of law and company affairs as well as commerce, after playing a key role in the BJP’s emphatic win in Gujarat a month ago.
Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, who has emerged as one of Vajpayee’s most trusted ministers, was given the additional charge of IT and communications ministries previously held by Mahajan.
Among other ministers affected by the recast were Sushma Swaraj, who will move from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to health and family welfare and parliamentary affairs, and Shatrughan Sinha, who has been pushed out of the Health Ministry to shipping after what many considered was a poor ministerial performance in the past seven months. The changes were upsetting for powerful ministers such as Mahajan and Krishnamurthy, but they kept their chin up before the media.
"It is not a demotion for me," Mahajan said. Asserting that he was prepared to face the challenge posed for BJP in the forthcoming elections, he said.
"The next 12 months are very important for the BJP, and party work will be more important than government," said Mahajan.
Mahajan, who has been in the government since Vajpayee came to power in 1996 for the first time, puts his famed organizational skills to test as BJP general secretary from today.
Notably, he and BJP President Venkaiah Naidu had worked together as general secretaries when Advani was BJP president.
Mahajan said he would take up the challenge of winning elections in key states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi this year and the general election due next year. Mahajan compensates for Jaitley, who was re-inducted in the Cabinet for his sharp administrative and legal acumen. Jaitley said these changes were designed to improve the functioning of the BJP and a message had gone down that everyone in the party should be prepared to work in the government as well as the organization.
"The party and the government will supplement each other," he said, appearing buoyant about his return to the Cabinet.
Uma Bharati, Vasundhara Raje Scindia and Raman Singh are three others who had to give up their jobs to shoulder party responsibilities in the Congress party-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh respectively.
Though it took a lot of persuasion from the BJP leadership, all three publicly expressed full willingness to plunge into party work and begin preparing for elections in their designated states.
