BJP wants to retain four of its top leaders, Naidu and Nitish may get three posts each: Sources on portfolio talks
Around 12 to 15 posts in the Union Council of Ministers may go to NDA allies, as the BJP top brass begins discussions with alliance partners ahead of the swearing-in of the Council of Ministers this Sunday.
Senior BJP leaders Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and party president JP Nadda were holding discussions with allies at Nadda’s residence on Friday evening. According to sources, the meetings were being held one-on-one. The first meeting was reportedly held with NCP’s Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel and Sameer Bhujbal, followed by RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary.
Sources say the BJP wants to retain the top Raisina Hill ministries such as home, external affairs, defence and finance, along with some other key ministries such as railways, road transport, law, information technology and education.
On Friday, a group of senior BJP leaders JP Nadda, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh held one-on-one meetings with leaders of JDS, TDP JDU, NCP, SS, LJP and NCP. From the alliance camp, the names of TDP’s Rammohan Naidu, LJP’s Jayant Chaudhary, JDU’s Lallan Singh, JDS’s Kumaraswamy and Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel are doing the rounds as ministers. Similarly, JD-U may be in the race for three posts, one full cabinet minister post and two ministers of state. Incidentally, JD-U had demanded four posts in 2019 when it won 16 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, but the BJP did not relent and JD-U remained out of the cabinet. This time JD-U has won 12 seats, but like TDP, this time its importance is much more. Nitish Kumar has previously been the Union Railway Minister, while JD-U’s RCP Singh has been the Steel Minister.
