Modi to be NDA chief too

Swearing- in likely by May 27 Technocrats unlikely

Prime Minister- elect Narendra Modi is all set to replace party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani as NDA chairman. The first step towards this will be taken Tuesday as Mr Modi is elected NDA parliamentary party chief in addition to being leader of the BJP parliamentary party. Mr Modi will also be meeting his NDA allies.

After his election as parliamentary leader, senior BJP leaders will call on President Pranab Mukherjee to formally stake their claim to forming the government. It is learnt that the swearing- in ceremony is likely to held by May 27.

It is understood that the RSS is still mulling over going ahead with the move to make Mr Advani Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Given Mr Advani’s track record of taking potshots at Mr Modi, the Sangh “is not very comfortable with the idea,” a BJP leader said.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who was reportedly “upset” earlier over being kept out of the consultations on government formation, met Mr Modi at Gujarat Bhavan on Monday morning. After the meeting, it appeared that she had decided to make peace.

Contrary to speculation, the Modi government is unlikely to bring in technocrats in any of the major ministries as there is a long queue of politicians waiting for ministerial

Some young faces who could be part of a Modi ministry include Dharmendra Pradhan, Anurag Thakur and Varun Gandhi.

If Varun Gandhi joins the Modi government, it is unlikely that his mother Maneka, who was environment minister in the Vajpayee government, would get a berth.

Arun Shourie, who was a key minister in the Vajpayee government, could be given the post of an adviser in case he is not included in the Cabinet.

Sources said Mr Shourie’s exact role was yet to be determined.

Others who are likely to get Cabinet berth are Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and M. Venkaiah Naidu. A technocrat or nonpolitician looks extremely unlikely for the finance or corporate affairs ministries.

Speculation is also rife that Smriti Irani could also be “rewarded” for giving a tough fight to Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Ms Irani is a member of the Rajya Sabha. BJP treasurer and Rajya Sabha MP Piyush Goyel is also waiting in the queue to enter the Modi ministry.

The Modi government is also likely to accomodate its key allies. Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, a BJP ally, who is keen to enter the government, made her intentions clear by saying: “Our alliance has swept Uttar Pradesh and nobody can ignore the importance of the state. The BJP chief has already said the interests of the alliance partners would be safeguarded. So there is no need for us to say anything else.”

Once again a series of meetings continued all through Monday on gov- ernment formation. The first meeting of the day was between Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley and Mr Modi.

Later, some of the newly- elected MPs met the RSS leadership at the Sangh headquarters.

Uma Bharti, Gopinath Munde, Yogi Adityanath and Varun Gandhi met party chief Rajnath Singh.

Newly- elected MPs R. K. Singh ( former home secretary) and Satyapal Singh ( former Mumbai police commissioner) also met the BJP president.

Other MPs who met him include Manoj Tiwari and Udit Raj.