New Delhi: Speculations are rife in political circles that senior BJP leader and Minority Affairs Minister, Najma Heptullah may well be the next Governor of Bihar.
Heptuallah, who is turning 75 in just two months, will reach the informal cut-off age of retirement for cabinet ministers, which is fixed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources revealed that Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who is junior to Nazma in the ministry and the only other Muslim face in cabinet, may well be promoted and give the independent charge of the ministry.
“Heptullah, the grand-niece of India's first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was not being "axed" but her "movement" to the Governor house was in line with Modi's plan of keeping the Cabinet "young" and rewarding ministers who are making efforts, like Naqvi in this case.” said the party sources.
After the term of the previous Governor, D.Y. Patil expired in November, the Governor of West Bengal, Kesari Nath Tripathi, is holding the additional charge of Bihar,
.Former Union minister, Munni Lall is also likely to replace Urmilla Singh, who relinquished her charge last week, as the next Himachal Pradesh Governor. Munni Lall was the minister of State for Labour and Employment in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet in 1999. Lall, a three-time MP from Sasaram in Bihar, had joined the BJP in 1996, after resigning from the Indian Administrative Service
Sources also said that the reshuffle of the Cabinet-cum-appointment of governors is likely to take place after the results of the Delhi Assembly elections on 10 February, the third since the National Democratic Alliance came into power in May 2014.
