New Delhi: Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan, who was shifted from the heavyweight Health and Family Welfare Ministry to the low key Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Ministry in the Council of Ministers expansion undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, is unlikely to be projected as the face of the BJP for the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi.
"We have already made it clear that we will not project anyone either the face or the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP for the Delhi Assembly elections. There is no question of Harsh Vardhan being projected as one despite the change in his portfolio," said a senior BJP leader.
Vardhan was projected as the party's chief ministerial candidate in the 2013 Assembly elections and the party under him managed to win 32 of the total 70 seats followed closely by the debutant Aam Aadmi Party's tally of 28 seats. Though the AAP went on to form the government in the national capital, Vardhan, a medical practitioner by profession, was rewarded by being anointed as the Health and Family Welfare minister after he won the Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk.
After the Delhi Assembly was dissolved recently, it was being speculated that Vardhan might be brought back to Delhi to take on AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. This belief got initially strengthened when Vardhan was shifted from Health to Science and Technology Ministry. The BJP circles were agog with talks of Vardhan's burden being lightened so that he was able to devote more time to assembly elections and the ministry also did not suffer.
However, the BJP leaders now feel that if Vardhan had to be made face of the party, he would have been made stronger rather than being given the charge of a relatively less significant ministry. Moreover, the manner in which his ministry was changed is also proof enough of him being shunted out and replaced by JP Nadda in the Health and Family Welfare ministry.
Sources close to Vardhan revealed to IBNLive that he himself was informed about the change in his portfolio just about an hour before the expansion ceremony took place.
"Vardhan was taken aback when BJP President Amit Shah told him that he was being shifted to Science and Technology Ministry but he did not ask the reason behind it," they said, adding that a pall of gloom has descended over Vardhan camp.
In fact, top leadership of the BJP's Delhi unit is itself clueless about the change in Vardhan's ministry. They say they were not taken into confidence over the issue.
Sources said Vardhan lost his pet ministry because of a general perception of him being slow in taking decisions. Vardhan's downplaying of the removal of AIIMS chief vigilance officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi also went against him after a powerful Nadda, who was BJP national general secretary and a member of BJP's Parliamentary Board - the party's top decision-making body - wrote letters to him.
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