The security of Bihar’s Lok Janshakti Party chief Chirag Paswan was recently upgraded to Z category by the Union Home Ministry. After the upgrade, speculation is rife about his induction into the Union Cabinet. Earlier in Bihar, Paswan’s community used to get a vote share between 5% and 12% in the Lok Sabha poll. But, in the last elections, it came down to a mere 1%. This was one of the reasons the BJP leadership was playing it cautiously in inducting Chirag into the cabinet. The BJP is now rethinking roping in the son of Ram Vilas Paswan into the cabinet. Focus on MP In the recently concluded national executive committee meeting of the BJP, Madhya Pradesh got special attention from the party. Since the current state party chief›s term as state president expires in February, the BJP intends to appoint a tribal leader from the state as the next president. In the last assembly election, the BJP lost many seats in the tribal area. For that reason, they could not form a government. Later, when Jyotiraditya Scindia switched over to the BJP along with 22 MLAs, the BJP formed the government. Before the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP leadership does not want to form a government with defections from another party. They want to consolidate tribal votes so that the BJP can form a government on its own.
The Lok Sabha secretariat has developed a new system of mobile attendance applications. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, feels this will facilitate a convenient way of marking attendance. A safeguard has also been incorporated into the mobile app. MPs cannot register their attendance when they are away from Parliament. The app system will only be opened when a member of parliament enters the Parliament House complex. Caution has also been raised about whether MPs will be allowed to register their attendance when they sit on dharna.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav removed a call bell (peon bell) from his office and secretariat in the Rail Bhawan in Delhi on 1 January 2023. Last year, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav issued an order prohibiting the deployment of a RPF jawan outside the General Manager›s office for the sole purpose of saluting, a tradition that dates back to the British. The purpose of the Railway Minister›s decision to stop the salute practise was that the GM and other railway officials should not consider themselves special.