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Ahead of Cabinet formation, Narendra Modi, prime minister designate on Monday held discussions with his close aide Amit Shah and senior party leader Arun Jaitley even as newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament met senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionaries at the Sangh office.
Modi held the meeting at the Gujarat Bhawan in Chanakyapuri with Shah and Jaitley, who is likely to be inducted in the Cabinet despite losing in the Lok Sabha elections.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and senior party leader Kalyan Singh also held discussions with Modi, who is likely to soon senior leaders of the National Democratic Alliance, including Uddhav Thackeray and Telugu Desam Party representatives, Bharatiya Janata Party said.
A flurry of meetings took place at Rajnath Singh’s Ashok Road residence with Uma Bharti, Gopinath Munde, Yogi Adityanath, Varun Gandhi and several newly-elected MPs calling on the BJP president.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj also met Narendra Modi on Monday. The meeting took place at Gujarat Bhawan, where Modi has been camping since Sunday, sources said. The former leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha had discussions with Modi soon after holding parleys with BJP president Rajnath Singh at his residence.
Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal, which is an alliance partner of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, also met Singh. “Our alliance has swept Uttar Pradesh and nobody can ignore the importance of the state. The BJP chief has already said that the interests of the alliance partners would be safeguarded. So, there is no need for us to say anything else,” she said.
Other leaders, including Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Udit Raj, Manoj Tiwari and senior UP leader Vinay Katiyar also had meetings with RSS senior functionaries at Sangh's Delhi headquarters in Keshavpuram.
After meeting RSS leaders, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "Tomorrow is the Parliamentary party meeting and all our MPs are coming and meeting the BJP president and the Sangh leaders. People have old ties and that is why they are coming here as well. The discussions are about the meeting only and no other issue.
Javadekar, who also met the BJP chief, added, "Only Modi and Rajnath Singh are holding discussions on that issue (of government formation) and other people are just meeting and greeting each other on the election victory." BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh Anurag Thakur
said he had come to thank the RSS for its support. "BJP works independently and will continue to do so," he said.
NDA's ally in Bihar and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan, along with his wife and son Chirag, also met Rajnath Singh at his residence.
"Neither Chirag or I has discussed anything about government formation or Cabinet portfolio with either Modiji or Rajnath Singh. I think this is BJP's prerogative to decide who will get what post in the new government," Paswan said.
The meetings come a day after Modi reached out to party elders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi as top leaders held parleys on the formation of the new government that will be sworn in this week.