Ranchi, Feb. 20: BJP leaders, including several MLAs, are unhappy about some of the new faces inducted in the Raghubar Das cabinet yesterday, sparking a vitriolic "insider-outsider" debate within the party.
Of the six new ministers - Saryu Roy, Neera Yadav, Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Raj Paliwar, Amar Kumar Bauri and Randhir Kumar Singh - at least three have come to the BJP from other parties (read rival parties).
While Bauri and Singh have defected from the JVM, BJP rank and file has not overlooked the fact that Chandravanshi had a long association with the RJD and joined the BJP just before the Assembly polls in November-December 2014.
No wonder, several MLAs like Menaka Sardar of Potka, who is an old hand, remained absent from yesterday's oath-taking ceremony of the new ministers at Birsa Mandap on the premises of Raj Bhavan.
"It seems that those who have come from outside have been given preference for the post of ministers. The party has not done good by ignoring old supporters and leaders, who have been with it for a long time," said Sardar, a third-time MLA from the Scheduled Tribe reserved constituency in East Singhbhum district.
Others are of the view that five-time MLA from Chhattarpur Radhakrishna Kishore, who joined the BJP before the Assembly polls, was a better choice for a ministerial berth.
Kishore represents the Scheduled Caste (SC) community and is well acquainted with issues plaguing Palamau.
But the party top brass settled for Chandravanshi, an influential entrepreneur of Palamau who runs around 15 educational institutions, including an engineering college.
The choice of Neera Yadav, a first-time MLA, as the HRD minister, deemed a crucial berth, has also raised eyebrows.
Sources said that Yadav got inducted into the state cabinet because her constituency - Koderma - shares borders with Bihar.
"Assembly elections in Bihar are due this year and the BJP is obviously eyeing the votes of the huge Yadav population," said a leader, ruing that selfish interests were colouring every decision of the party.
"No one is thinking beyond his or her self," he added.
There are reports that Roy had communicated to the chief minister that he would not like to handle the ministries given to him - food, civil supplies and consumer affairs and parliamentary affairs -while important portfolios like finance remained with Das.
Sources said that the Jamshedpur West MLA was supposed to get finance. However, Roy refused to say anything on record when The Telegraph contacted him this afternoon.
The Raghubar Das government's decision to leave one cabinet post vacant has also set tongues wagging. The buzz is that the state BJP was trying to woo four of the six Congress MLAs and had kept one berth open to "entice" them.
