Hyderabad: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BKP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is trying to keep its flock together to form the government at the Centre, parleys have begun for cabinet accommodations from the south. While the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which gave the NDA block 21 out of 25 seats in Andhra is reportedly seeking the Lok Sabha Speaker portfolio among other things, it is to be seen if the BJP will allocate more than one cabinet berth for its 8 MPs from Telangana.
According to sources in Delhi, the first priority for the BJP is to take a step back and keep its alliance partners happy. But the effort certainly comes with a trade-off especially at a time when the BJP has been trying to make inroads into southern states. One would wonder how the saffron party high command will strike a balance between pleasing its own indigenous leaders, other party leaders who joined BJP in the last couple of years, and its alliance partners who helped BJP gain seats in the south.
The story will be clearer only by Friday, June 7, in the evening when NDA parliamentary meet ends. Outgoing Union Home Minister Amit Shah who is negotiating the assignment of portfolios will have to strike that balance. The BJP had 30 cabinet ministers, two ministers of state with independent charge and 45 ministers of state in its last cabinet.
It has been learnt that the BJP is getting pressured from its alliance partners like the TDP and Janata Dal (United), which are demanding more portfolios. This has turned the BJP’s desire to retain important ministries into a diplomatic exercise of ‘alliance dharma‘ in Delhi. This could potentially cause a headache as the BJP’s Telangana MPs will also be expecting plum posts.
According to sources in the power corridors of Delhi, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has been soliciting the post of the speaker of the Lok Sabha for one of his 16 MPs, besides a few ministries.= It may be recalled that GMC Balayogi of TDP was the speaker of the 12th and 13th Lok Sabha during the previous NDA governments, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. Naidu is learned to have been seeking the powerful post once again.
Naidu is known to have sought some important ministries which will help him fulfill the provisions and needs of AP as enshrined in the AP Reorganisation Act. TDP’s alliance partner in AP, Jana Sena Party (JSP) headed by Pawan Kalyan, won two Lok Sabha seats and is also said to have asked for a ministry. A minister of state berth could be in the offing for JSP.
Accommodating the alliance partners in the cabinet comes with certain sacrifices which BJP MPs from Telangana and AP which the BJP may have to make. BJP won 8 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 3 in AP.
Two Telugu woman MPs in race for cabinet berth
BJP national vice-president DK Aruna made her debut in the Lok Sabha this time and won from Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha segment. On the other side, Andhra Pradesh BJP chief Daggubati Purandeswari, who won from the Rajahmundry Lok Sabha segment, is also in the race for a cabinet berth.
Purandeswari has served as the minister of human resource development in 2009, and as the minister of state in the ministry of commerce and industry in 2012 during the earlier Congress-led UPA central government. With that experience, political pundits feel that she would be the first choice for the party high command, especially after the alliance with TDP and Jana Sena worked wonders for BJP in AP.
Whether the party high command can accommodate both of them under the women’s representation in the cabinet quota, or if the party decides to make Aruna a minister of state, is a speculative point.
Will Telangana BJP brass be honoured?
Given that the BJP managed to double its numbers from 4 in 2019 to 8 now in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP Telangana president G Kishan Reddy seems to be the obvious choice of the party high command for a cabinet berth.
The question remains, whether the high command can accommodate a second MP from Telangana in the Union cabinet. Other probable faces are DK Aruna, Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay, Nizamabad MP D Arvind and Malkajgiri MP Eatala Rajender.
If Kishan Reddy is accommodated, then it is possible that there may be a change of guard in the party’s state leadership. Given that Bandi Sanjay and Eatala Rajender have both played their part in garnering the people’s support for BJP, and given the fact that both of them have been at loggerheads since Rajender was inducted into BJP, it needs to be seen who will be the chosen one.
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