NEW DELHI, 26 May 2003 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee overhauled his Cabinet over the weekend in a move seen yesterday as aimed at bolstering his BJP party ahead of forthcoming state and national elections.
Vajpayee reshuffled his ministerial council on Saturday for the tenth time since assuming power in 1999, adding six new faces and switching several portfolios.
The new arrangement takes the number of ministers to an all-time high of 80.
Vajpayee heads a disparate coalition of about two dozen parties, but most of the new ministers were from his BJP, and analysts said the reshuffle was meant to send out a clear signal to the party’s allies that it was still the strongest force within the coalition.
BJP President Venkaiaha Naidu has in the past said the party is confident of winning the general election due in 2004 on its own, taking 300 seats in the 545-member lower house of Parliament.
“Naidu has been harping on the 300-mark for some time. It (the reshuffle) was their way of asserting themselves,” said N. Bhaskara Rao, director of the New Delhi-based think tank Center for Media Studies.
But the main reason for the reshuffle — to include Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the BJP’s powerful ally Trinamool Congress — was lost because the firebrand leader had last-minute differences with the BJP.
The Trinamool is a political force that could pose a serious challenge to the ruling Marxists in their bastion of West Bengal state, which sends a sizeable number of MPs to the national Parliament.
After the reshuffle, Vajpayee hinted that he would iron out the differences with Banerjee and soon admit her back into the ministerial council. But the changes were also made with an eye on the elections in four key states later this year and the general election, scheduled for 2004. Former chief minister of the northern Uttar Pradesh state, Rajnath Singh, was made agriculture minister after the resignation of Ajit Singh.
Singh’s induction was aimed at wooing the powerful Rajput community, to which the minister belongs.
“The Rajput votes are important for all the states which go to polls this year,” said Rao.
Two fresh faces to also find a place in the Cabinet were Prahlad Singh Patel from Madhya Pradesh state and Kailash Meghwal from Rajasthan — both of which go to the polls later this year.
One of the most noticeable moves was the replacement of Shahnawaz Hussain as civil aviation minister by junior commerce minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Rao said the suave Rudy was handed a better portfolio because he appeals to young voters.
Meanwhile, the BJP devoted yesterday to discussing its strategy for the coming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, party president Venkaiah Naidu, vice president P.L. Khanduri and general secretary Pramod Mahajan attended the meeting among others.
The BJP is hoping to return to power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, where Congress holds the command at present.
