BJP chief says Modi government is decisive and will fulfil all promises by 2019.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Friday confirmed that there will be a reshuffle in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers but said the date was yet to be finalised.
Speculation has been rife over some possible changes in the government and the BJP, particularly after the party's victory in Assam.
"There will be ... but a date is not decided," he said at a press conference here. He, however, refrained from getting into any details. "I am not going to discuss it with you at a press conference," he said.
With UP election less than a year away, there is expectation that the council of ministers may have more faces from the state. Organisational changes were also on the cards. BJP sources said that Shah's new team of office-bearers could be announced before the party's national executive meeting in Allahabad on June 12 and 13. However, sources said they were expecting only slight changes in the team.
Besides, among the 57 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant are those of seven Union ministers-- Venkaiah Naidu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Chaudhary Birendra Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and YS Chaudhary from TDP. The elections to the seats are scheduled for June 11.
The government wants all ministers to find berths in the Upper House. Goyal and Prabhu are set to return from Maharashtra. The BJP is hoping for five seats in the Upper House, where the numerical disadvantage of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has come in the way of passage of crucial Bills like the Goods and Service Tax (GST).
As the government completed two years, Shah said that, by 2019, all promises made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls would be fulfilled. "In three years, we hope to fulfil all promises before we go to polls in 2019," he said.
While reeling out the government's programmes, he flaunted the "pro-poor"and "pro-farmer" theme saying it had infused hope among people.
To a question about the controversies that the government faced, he said people have closed the chapter on issues like Rohith Vemula suicide and JNU row. "This mandate (assembly polls) was after that and those who raised them are nowhere," he said. He was apparently targeting the Congress, which has been decimated in the recent polls in four states.
"We have given a decisive government. A government that can take decisions and has the political will to execute them. After a long time, there is a government like this. NEET is an example," he said.
Shah claimed that after two years in government, even opponents have not been able to level any allegation of corruption against it.
To a question on the BJP's dalit outreach, Shah shot back "We are the only party in which there is a dalit in the parliamentary board." Eluding a response on party MP Subramanian Swamy's attack on RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, he said there was no need for the party to have a view on it.
As a respect to federal structure
Asked if the party's high-level representation, which included finance minister Arun Jaitley, at Mamata Banerjee's swearing in as West Bengal chief minister indicated the possibility of a new alliance, Amit Shah said no. Sending our senior ministers was a gesture respecting the federal structure. This does not mean we have given up our fight in the state."
In Punjab, where the BJP has an alliance with the Akali Dal, he said the Akalis were the "big brother" and so should take the lead in forming strategy.
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