New Delhi: The BJP is now busy forming a new government after 27 years of history; the party is newly forming the govt in Delhi Assembly elections. The decision by the Chief Minister and cabinet ministers is expected after Modi’s visit. Party leaders said it would be the top leadership who would decide the government’s roles. The party leadership has surprised even senior leaders with such decisions in recent years, and this time, too, leaders are unsure who will be finally named for the key positions.
Sources in the party said that ‘caste combinations’ and social and geographical considerations were being factored in to arrive at possible names at various levels in the party. Some names are doing the rounds, but they are still MLAs and can be made cabinet ministers only at 11 AM (when the new government will be sworn in) on Thursday, so it is too early to say — party leader, IANS. Forty-eight BJP legislators have been voted into the Assembly this term, including many first-time winners and some who have crossed over from other parties.
However, leaders said that the Chief Minister would be from among the present MLAs. This is to prevent two by-elections in Delhi — that of the legislator’s seat and a Lok Sabha seat if a member of the Lok Sabha is designated Chief Minister. A party leader indicates that the party might hand over the CM post to one of the sitting legislators.
No key Positions: Delhi can have only six ministers, excluding Chief Minister positions, who are Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Chief Whip, who are also available. It did not take long for the Assembly to make the most of its powers with the appointment of the Chief Whip, despite that post not being ministerial. It also looks at naming a woman CM from among the party’s female legislators. If that doesn’t, one of the other nine major roles will likely go to a female. The legislators chosen for these ten important slots are often picked from communities or regions across Delhi.
Potential Candidates:
Sikh Community: Arvinder Singh Lovely, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Tarvinder Singh Marwah
Jat Community: Parvesh Verma, Kailash Gahlot
Women : Shikha Roy, Rekha Gupta and Poonam Sharma
Scheduled Castes: Rajkumar Chauhan, Kailash Gangwal, Ravikant Ujjain
Vaishya Community: Vijender Gupta, Tilak Ram Gupta, and Anil Goyal
Brahmins: Pawan Sharma, Satish Upadhyay, Anil Sharma
Punjabi Community: Ashish Sood, Umang Bajaj and Rajkumar Bhatia