The BJP on Monday appointed central observers to oversee the legislature party meetings and election of chief ministers to Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur following victories in the recent Assembly elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been entrusted with monitoring Uttar Pradesh.
Along with Mr. Shah, former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das will be overseeing the process in Uttar Pradesh; in Uttarakhand Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi have been appointed; Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju will be taking care of Manipur and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of State for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry L. Murugan have been deputed for Goa.
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With this, the BJP has set in motion the formal process of electing chief ministers in these States. The biggest quandry in all this is Uttarakhand where, while the party won, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost his seat. In such a scenario, the BJP has to decide whether Mr. Dhami may be appointed chief minister and subsequently elected to the Assembly via a bypoll, or risk a bypoll to elect a Member of Parliament from Uttarakhand or circumvent all this and choose a candidate from the newly elected MLAs. Sources in the party said while the party was leaning towards choosing from elected MLAs, other options were also "open."
In Goa, speculation around replacing Chief Minister Pramod Sawant with Vishwajeet Rane gained ground when the latter met with Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai. However, the BJP dismissed this as speculation.
"In Goa and in Manipur, while there is some internal murmuring, the fact is that the party's position in the Assembly improved vastly and as such there is no reason to punish the current chief ministers under whom the polls were fought," said an office bearer of the party.
In Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Shah's appointment also points to possible largescale change in the council of ministers and the need for this process to be done in an orderly, disciplined fashion. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is set to return as Chief Minister, was in Delhi on Sunday and Monday where he met top leaders of the party as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
