Hectic parley and consultations are underway in the national capital with Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi meeting with several top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to take a final decision on the Cabinet formation.
RSS general secretary Ram Lal and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley met party President Rajnath Singh at his residence. BJP’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge Amit Shah was also present.
Sources said Modi was keen on a larger role for Shah.
RSS member Ram Madhav said, “RSS will not interfere in government formations. Sangh did not give guideline to anyone. The BJP has set an agenda which the nation accepted, they will now decide how to take nation forward.”
Earlier in the day, Modi visited LK Advani’s residence to meet him.
He also held a series of meetings with his close-aide Shah, former chief minister and Karnataka strongman BS Yeddyurappa, Bihar in-charge Dharmedra Pradhan and party general secretary JP Nadda.
According to party sources, political developments in Bihar in the wake of resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are also believed to have come up for discussion. The JDU will be holding a meeting with its party MLA to decide its future course of action.
The meetings come amid discussions within the BJP and RSS on who will replace party President Rajnath Singh if he were to move to the Cabinet. Since Saturday, Cabinet aspirants are meeting RSS leaders Suresh Soni, Dattatreya Hosebole and Bhaiyyaji Joshi in Delhi.
It is believed that Rajnath Singh prefers the Home Ministry which Sushma Swaraj is also keen to have while LK Advani is keen on becoming the Lok Sabha Speaker. The Finance Ministry is likely to go to either Arun Jaitley, Arun Shourie or some technocrat. Nitin Gadkari is said to be keen to bag the post of the party chief yet again.
The party’s parliamentary board is also set to meet on May 20. Rajnath Singh on Saturday had announced that Modi will be formally elected as the leader of the party’s Parliamentary Party at its meeting in Delhi on May 20 ahead of taking oath as the Prime Minister.
