All eyes on Cabinet expansion after poor show in ministers’ strongholds

In view of this,the upcoming monthly informal meetings of the chief minister with Cabinet ministers is also expected to be focused around the party’s performance in the PRI and local body elections. Some of the ministers have already started giving feelers to the party that the BJP’s unpleasant performance has been an outcome of poor choice of candidates at top level without consulting local leaders.

The first informal meeting is expected to be held after Dhumal comes back from the national executive meeting at Guwahati. A majority of the nine BJP ministers who have completed three years in the Cabinet have faced drubbing in their hometowns in the urban local body elections. They include Health Minister Rajiv Bindal,Horticulture Minister Narender Bragta,Public Works Department Minister Gulab Singh Thakur and Industries Minister Krishan Kapoor.

In Zila Parishad polls,too,the performance of BJP-supported candidates has not been pleasing for the party. In Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary’s constituency,Shahpur,only two of the four zila parishad seats were bagged by the BJP.

Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Ravi managed to keep the BJP flag flying high in Thural (Kangra) Zila Parishad,but could not meet the challenge given to him for three municipal bodies of Chamba,of which only Chawari could be captured by a BJP candidate. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ramesh Dhawala could manage BJP’s victory in Dehra Nagar Panchayat and badly lost Jwalamukhi.

Panchayati Raj Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Transport Minister Mahender Singh,who joined the Cabinet in 2010,have kept the BJP’s vote share in their constituencies intact. In Thakur’s constituency,though,there was no municipal body but the real test was on four seats of zila parishad that went to the BJP. Mahender Singh kept Sarkaghat Municipal Committee in BJP’s kitty.

Interestingly,though the BJP captured Banjar,the hometown of party president Khimi Ram,in Bhuntar Nagar Panchayat,where he cast his vote,the BJP remained on fourth position with an Independent winning the president’s post. Similarly,a close relative of Education Minister I D Dhiman was defeated in his hometown under Mewa constituency.