Cabinet reshuffle likely after Amit Shah's re-election
According to NDTV, with elections in five states due this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to firm up delivery on the governance front and is said to be searching for new faces for his cabinet.
Though the top four portfolios - home, finance, defence and foreign ministry -- will see no change, PM Modi will cut down the number of ministers from Bihar following the party's electoral debacle in the state. Some ministries may also be reorganised for better governance.
But all this will only happen after Amit Shah is re-elected and reorganises his team, sources said.
Shah's election is expected to be consensual. "The way he (Mr Shah) has performed, everyone wants him to become the president again," party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has been quoted as saying. .
Several huge challenges await the BJP chief this year -- the most urgent being the elections in five states including West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam, where the party traditionally has little presence.
The election for Uttar Pradesh is slated for next year. Expectations will run high, since in the 2014 general elections, the party won 72 of the state's 80 parliamentary seats.
Shah is also expected to lead Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The expected cabinet reshuffle is the first indication that PM Modi is eyeing the 2019 polls. The renewed focus on the Ram Mandir issue is the second, NDTV said
While Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has recently drawn attention to the temple issue, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy says he has written to PM Modi, calling for a day-to-day hearing of the Ayodhya case in the Supreme Court.
"I have written to the PM asking the government to petition the Supreme Court for a day-to-day hearing in the Babri land case. I myself am filing a intervening petition," Swamy said. An early resolution of the case, he said, can fast track the plans to build the temple.
The BJP's Sangh Parivar partner, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has already said it will build Ram temples each of the 1.25 villages of Uttar Pradesh.
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