By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 12 Aug: Speculation is rife in social and political circles and even on media regarding a possible reshuffle of the Pushkar Singh Dhami cabinet or a possible expansion. There are at present four vacancies in the Dhami Council of Ministers. The speculation only intensified when the Party’s State In charge, Dushyant Gautam, in response to certain questions by the media persons in Dehradun today claimed that there has been a discussion within the party regarding cabinet expansion. Consultations have been done and following consent from the party’s high command, the Dhami Cabinet will be expanded.
On the other hand, BJP State President and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt was more guarded in his response today when he was also asked the same question by media persons during an informal chat at the BJP State Headquarters in Dehradun. He said that the Cabinet expansion will happen at an appropriate time after final approval by the Party High Command. He did not elaborate, however, whether this is likely in the coming days or weeks or if there has been a discussion at the top level of the party regarding this issue.
It may be recalled the speculation in the media regarding cabinet reshuffle began when certain BJP leaders including several ministers started meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and some other senior ministers and the BJP President JP Nadda. Among them were ministers like Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal and Ganesh Joshi. After this, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also reached Delhi and called on Central Leaders.
However, it may be pertinent to remind here that Dushyant Gautam has been making similar statements regarding possible cabinet expansion since he became the leader in charge of the party affairs in Uttarakhand. Some leaders also claim that, to effect a major cabinet reshuffle will not be an easy task for CM Dhami and that he probably lacks courage to ensure this. They claim that Dhami has not been able to even expand his cabinet in more than two years, to be able to gather courage to drop some existing ministers and reshuffle the government will prove just too big a political challenge for any CM in Uttarakhand. They remind that the then CM, Trivendra Singh Rawat, had been a CM for four years and yet had not been able to have a full cabinet. Even when a very senior minister Prakash Pant expired, he found it too big a challenge to fill the vacancy created by Pant.
When Pushkar Singh Dhami took over as CM after the assembly elections in 2022, he left three vacancies in his council of ministers. However last year, Cabinet Minister Chandan Ram Das passed away and this vacancy was also not filled up, resulting in four vacancies at present. There have been discussions about filling these vacant seats for a long time. Now after the statement of Uttarakhand BJP state in-charge Dushyant Gautam, the murmurs of cabinet expansion have once again intensified.
