PrashantNews
After the Prem Chand Agarwal episode, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held talks with Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh in New Delhi.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has also reached New Delhi.
The Prime Minister-Governor meeting also raised a few eyebrows in the wake of the resignation of Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Prem Chand Agarwal over his alleged unparliamentary remarks in the Vidhan Sabha which turned into a major hill-plain controversy.
The Governor described the meeting as courtesy call which assumes significance after Chief Minister Dhami faced an awkward situation over the Agarwal episode with the opposition Congress pillorying the ruling BJP on the issue. “All I can say is that there is more to something than meets the eye,” said a top BJP leader.
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.