Delhi tour: Jai Ram to discuss cabinet rejig

SHIMLA: With the by- polls debacle shaking the confidence of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for getting another tenure in Himachal, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur will hold consultations with the party high command over cabinet rejig.

Jai Ram will embark on a two-day visit to New Delhi on December 4, ten days after the party held a three-day brainstorming session in Shimala to thrash out the differences among leaders and assess the factors that led to the party’s defeat in the by-polls.

The BJP was drubbed by Congress in Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly segments, as well as it lost the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in the results declared on November 2.

Jai Ram will also meet national president Jagat Parkash Nadda, besides other senior leaders.

“Issue related to party and government will be discussed in Delhi. Whatever happens will happen for good,” said Thakur, when asked about his scheduled visit to Delhi. Of the 17 assembly segments under the Mandi parliamentary seat, BJP was drubbed in nine assembly segments. Tribal development minister Ram Lal Markanda and education minister Govind Thakur failed to secure lead for the party candidate Khushal Thakur from their respective constituencies, Lahaul and Spiti and Manali. Factors like inflation, infighting, inept functioning, sympathy factors, complacent cadres favoured the Congress according to the deliberations BJP leaders held in Shimla.

During the three-day deliberations, the party’s top brass also reviewed the working and performance of ministers.

The reports sent to Delhi have raised questions about the working of the ministers, said sources.

The chief minister has already instructed the ministers to be present at party office and listen to the grievances of party men. “Elections are closing in and ministers have been instructed to sit at the party office. They would interact with party workers routinely,” he said.

Party’s national president Jagat Parkash Nadda, along with Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, will soon visit Bilaspur to inaugurate the OPD Block of AIIMS there. The party high command was already favouring sweeping changes in the organisation as well the government to improve the prospects for the assembly elections.