Diwali gift for BJP’s edgy Ministers, Khanna says ‘no reshuffle on cards’

JAMMU: On the auspicious eve of Diwali there is some good news for some of the beleaguered Ministers belonging to the Bhartiya Janta Party –the much speculated reshuffle in the Mehbooba Mufti cabinet is not taking place anytime soon, as feared by many of them.
Ever since a series of delegations complained before Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his Jammu visit last month, of their displeasure over delay on some of projects and policies which were key elements of BJP’s electoral promise, there have been speculations about reshuffle in Cabinet. The back to back visits to Jammu of top party leaders Ram Lal and Ram Madhav had added further fuel to the speculations.
There has been intensive lobbying by some of the edgy Ministers to retain their positions while some of the aspirants have also been trying hard to fill up the places. In the middle of these speculations, the BJP Vice President Avinash Rai Khanna has ruled out any possibility of reshuffle in Jammu and Kashmir ministry in near future. Khanna is in-charge of Jammu and Kashmri affairs.
For the past few months, a list of who's who of BJP leaders, likely to be inducted in the much awaited reshuffle of the Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP government is doing rounds on various media platforms.
Khana said that no reshuffle is expected to take place in the near future. "These are all speculations and we should not give any heed to all this. As of now there is no plan to reshuffle among BJP ministers in the state. The party high command has not taken any decision in this regard," Khana said.
When asked that there were also speculations that the PDP and BJP may go for a reshuffle of the cabinet ministers, he said both the parties have not yet decided to make any immediate changes in the cabinet.
He said that BJP and PDP ministers are working well. "They are taking forward the agenda of peace and prosperity in the state as envisioned by Prime Minister Modi," Khana claimed.
However Avinahs Rai Khana further added that the central party leadership is regularly assessing the performance of their party ministers in different states including the Jammu and Kashmir and where ever some intervention is required in the interest of the masses and the state party unit, the party high command takes a call after holding threadbare discussions within the party.
Commenting on the braid chopping issues in Kashmir, Khana said that government is serious over the issue and won't allow any body to create uncertainty in the state.
The BJP with 25 seats has eight cabinet and three ministers of state, including Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, while the PDP has 13 ministers, including Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Meanwhile a senior BJP leader, who recently attended National Executive Meeting, said that the central leaders remained busy on chalking out national agenda of the party and how to improve programme implementation of various central schemes meant for poor across the state. "There was neither specific discussion on the state centric issues nor any performance audit of the JK BJP leaders," the BJP leader said.
It is to mention here that the BJP General Secretary, Ram Madhav, and Avinash Rai Khana had recently held one-on-one meeting with his party ministers in Srinagar. Almost all ministers had met the two leaders and have briefed them about their respective departments.