PrashantNews
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was on Monday trying to assess the political situation in the aftermath of the resignation of Cabinet Minister Prem Chand Agarwal over his alleged unparliamentary remarks in the Vidhan Sabha.
Dhami is likely to expand his cabinet shortly and reshuffle the portfolios of his Cabinet colleagues, BJP sources said. He may drop one or two Ministers also. It will be interesting to see who will get the key ministerial portfolios like finance, parliamentary affairs and urban development which were held by Agarwal. As of now, five slots in the cabinet are vacant.
Political analysts said Dhami is facing an uphill task to maintain a balance in the cabinet so that equal representations can be given to the different regions and castes.
The resignation of Agarwal is also seen as a setback to BJP as the main opposition Congress party managed to earn some brownie points by repeatedly attacking Agarwal, who didn’t get any support within the BJP over the issue. “As the issue became a major controversy, the party high command asked Agarwal to quit,” said a top BJP leader. “There was no other option also,” the leader opined.
The party sources said Dhami may travel to New Delhi again to hold consultations with the party high command on the cabinet expansion issue. He also met Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh at Raj Bhawan.
The pressure has been mounting on the BJP high command to remove Agarwal after the controversy became a major issue in the state during the last budget session in February. A series of protest rallies against Agarwal were held in parts of Uttarakhand over the issue in the past despite his apology.