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Much-awaited Himachal cabinet reshuffle put off for a week till CM is back from quarantine
Names of Nurpur and Paonta Sahib MLAs Rakesh Pathania and Sukhram Chaudhary besides former minister Narinder Bragta doing the rounds
Shimla: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party announced Suresh Kashyap as the Himachal Pradesh unit chief, the much-awaited state cabinet reshuffle is on the cards with three berths vacant.
Though chief minister Jai Ram Thakur has got the go-ahead from the high command, he is in self-quarantine for a week after a deputy secretary in his office tested positive for Covid-19.
Thakur had sought party chief Jagat Prakash Nadda’s nod and discussed the reshuffle in detail with Himachal BJP in-charge and Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey.
Three cabinet berths fell vacant after then food and civil supplies minister Kishan Kapoor was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kangra, while power minister Anil Sharma quit after the Congress nominated his son Ashray Sharma from the Mandi parliamentary seat against BJP’s sitting Lok Sabha member Ram Swaroop Sharma and health minister Bipin Singh Parmar was appointed speaker in place of Nahan legislator Rajeev Bindal who was named state unit chief in January.
Jai Ram Thakur planned to expand his cabinet after the Dharamshala and Pacchad Lok Sabha byelections last year but the exercise was deferred due to bickering in the state BJP. After that, the coronavirus pandemic stalled his plans.
CONTENDERS FOR CABINET
Nurpur legislator Rakesh Pathania is likely to be inducted into the cabinet. He began his political career in 1991 and was the BJP Kisan Morcha’s Kangra president before becoming its state secretary and a member of the party’s state executive. He was elected to the assembly as a BJP nominee in 1998 and re-elected as an independent in 2007 before becoming an MLA for the third time in December 2017. Pathania belongs to the Rajput community and has been vying for a cabinet berth since 2017. However, the party chose Bipin Singh Parmar, another Rajput leader.
Paonta Sahib MLA Sukhram Chaudhary, the leader from other backward classes from Sirmaur, is also likely to be inducted into the cabinet. Chaudhary was a junior engineer in the electricity board before joining politics and was elected to the Vidhan Sabha in 2003, 2007 and 2017. He was parliamentary secretary from 2009-12.
The chief minister is likely to give a place to Hans Raj, the legislator from Churah in Chamba, for the second term in his cabinet. Hans Raj is the deputy speaker of the Vidhan Sabha.
Speculation is rife that first Narender Thakur, the two-time legislator from Hamirpur, could replace Hans Raj as deputy speaker. Narender is the son of late BJP stalwart Jagdev Chand Thakur. Narender, however, does not enjoy a rapport with former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son and Union minister Anurag Thakur.
The names of senior BJP leader and former horticulture minister Narinder Bragta, Sarkaghat legislator Colonel Inder Singh, who is a three-time MLA, and Kailesh Kumari, a first-time legislator from Bhoranj, are also doing the rounds.
