Race on for cabinet berths

SHIMLA: Intense lobbying for ministerial berths began in Himachal Pradesh on Monday after the BJP picked five-time legislator Jai Ram Thakur as the next chief minister.

Fifty-two-year-old Thakur, the first leader from the Mandi region to be chosen for the top post, will be sworn in on December 27 in a grand ceremony that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and chief ministers of several Bjp-ruled states are expected to attend.

The chief minister-elect met governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan for the second time in as many days, triggering speculation that he has possibly given a list of ministers to take the oath of office with him. Thakur was accompanied by senior legislators Suresh Bhardwaj and Rajiv Bindal.

“All aspects would be kept in mind while forming the government,” Thakur said, even as an aide close to him clarified that his visit to Raj Bhavan was “a courtesy call”.

A major challenge for the soft-spoken leader would be to strike a balance between region and caste equations in the hill state.

The BJP won 44 seats in the 68-member assembly to wrest power from the Congress last week.

The party won 11 of 15 seats in the politically significant Kangra district and nine of 10 in Mandi.

Sources said senior BJP leaders are meeting in Shimla to shortlist names for ministerial positions in the new government. There’s also a buzz that several senior leaders were lobbying for ministries, including former chief minister Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal

who are seeking cabinet berths for their loyalists.

Such speculation intensified after reports that Dhumal, who was the BJP’S candidate for the chief minister’s post before he lost the election, met the party’s national leaders in New Delhi.

Thakur was elected legislature party leader after Dhumal pulled out of the race for the top post and proposed the Mandi leader’s name.

THAKUR MET GOVERNOR FOR A SECOND TIME, FANNING TALKS THAT HE MAY HAVE GIVEN LIST OF MINISTERS TO TAKE OATH WITH HIM