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This is being seen in the party as an effort to balance the power equations in the State unit
Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar has been retained as member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s highest decision-making body of Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee, which is the final authority for clearing the names of party’s candidates for elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils.
The board and the committee were reconstituted by BJP national president Amit Shah on Tuesday.
This is being seen in the party as an effort to balance the power equations in the State unit, especially in the wake of another senior leader from the State, B.S. Yeddyurappa, being elevated as the national vice-president recently. Mr. Kumar was dropped from the party’s national office-bearers’ team, which was reconstituted recently, in the wake of him joining the Narendra Modi’s Cabinet.
The relationship between Mr. Kumar and Mr. Yeddyurappa has always been a subject of speculation as they are emerging as parallel power centres in the party’s State unit.
The fact that Mr. Kumar had to be content with Chemicals and Fertilizers portfolio while his State colleague D.V. Sadananda Gowda got the plum portfolio of Railways was widely interpreted as the change in the power equations in the party’s State unit. Mr. Yeddyurappa’s inclusion in the national office-bearers’ team had further boosted this trend.
Venkaiah Naidu too
Meanwhile, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, who is elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, too continues to be the member of both the board and the committee.
(The Hindu)
