PM Modi holds meet with Amit Shah and JP Nadda – new govts in UP, Goa & Uttarakhand on agenda
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda in New Delhi to discuss the ongoing exercise for government formation in the four states where the BJP came back to power in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
The saffron camp is yet to officially name its chief ministers for three of these states – Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand – even after 10 days of the poll results giving the BJP a clear majority in all these states and several rounds of consultations.
Earlier in the day, N Biren Singh was made the Manipur chief minister for a second straight term after he was unanimously elected the leader of the BJP legislature party. According to reports, newly elected BJP MLAs will choose their leaders on Monday in Uttarakhand and Goa where incumbents Pushkar Singh Dhami and Pramod Sawant have so far been seen as favourites.
Sawant said a decision on the swearing-in ceremony in the coastal state will be taken on Monday evening. According to reports, the Goa BJP will stake claim to form the government tomorrow after a meeting of the legislature party.
In Uttarakhand, newly elected party MLAs will meet in Dehradun on Monday to choose the next chief minister.
The decision to convene a meeting of the MLAs was taken after Dhami, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Trivendra Singh Rawat (both former CMs), among others, met the party’s central leadership at Shah’s New Delhhi residence. Dhami had lost the Assembly election from Khatima constituency.
In Uttar Pradesh, where Yogi Adityanath beat anti-incumbency to roar back to power, government formation is a mere formality that will be completed after the newly elected MLAs meet to elect him as the chief minister.
The legislature party is likely to meet on March 24 and formally elect Adityanath as its leader, a day before he is sworn-in. The Ikana Stadium is being readied for a grand swearing-in ceremony which is likely to be attended by a galaxy of senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nadda, besides other central ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.