BJP MPs, including Union ministers, elected to assemblies quit Parliament; likely to join state governments

New Delhi: Ten Parliamentarians of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday tendered their resignations, including nine Lok Sabha MPs and a Rajya Sabha MP, in a move that has been seen as a precursor to a major rejig in the party and organisation after the five state polls. The Lok Sabha MPs included Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Singh Patel.

The party also held serious deliberations later in the day, as Union Home Minister Amit Shah met the prime minister, barely an hour after party president J P Nadda held a meeting with the party’s general secretary, ostensibly to decide on the leadership in the three states.

A meeting of the BJP Central Parliamentary Party is slated to be held early on Thursday.

The meetings led to intense speculation on who will be declared the chief ministers in the three states, with several names doing the rounds. “The president has indicated that the process of naming the chief ministers will be completed within a week, and today’s meeting can be considered the first step in that process,” a general secretary, who was part of the meeting, said.

The BJP decided that all of its 12 MPs who were recently elected to state assemblies will quit Parliament, amid strong indications that they may join the new governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. The move has given rise to the view that the party leadership may bring in new faces at the helm in all three states. Senior leaders, however, declined to comment on such a development.

Among the Parliamentarians are Rakesh Singh, Uday Pratap Singh, and Riti Pathak from Madhya Pradesh; Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Diya Kumari from Rajasthan, in addition to Chhattisgarh MPs Arun Sao and Gomti Sai. Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan Kirori Lal Meena, too, put in his papers.

Two MPs – Rajasthan Lok Sabha MP Baba Balaknath and Chhattisgarh MP and Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh – are yet to submit their resignations.

As the MPs went to the Parliament to tender their resignations, Nadda accompanied them to the Speaker’s office. The MPs then met prime minister Modi.

The resignations of the Union ministers will also lead to a minor rejig in the council of ministers—the last rejig took place in May this year when Arjun Ram Meghwal replaced Kiren Rijiju as law minister.

In all, the BJP had fielded 21 MPs across the three states, including seven MPs each in MP and Rajasthan, four MPs in Chhattisgarh and three in Telangana. This included four Union ministers. Nine of the MPs lost, however, lost the elections, including Union Minister of State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste.