Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi (69) was left high and dry when he was denied the Union Cabinet post which he was eyeing since he became a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar on December 8 last year.
He was among the leaders called to Delhi two days ago, indicating that he would be among those to be sworn in, but his name was missing in the final list of 43 sent by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to the President for the oath taking ceremony on Wednesday evening.
It could not be ascertained at what stage Sushil was dropped; it might have happened in the last round of consultations the PM had with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP's national organising secretary B L Santhosh, who is the RSS points man in the party.
However, a top party source said Prime Minister Modi had indeed promised to accommodate Sushil at the Centre when he extracted an assurance from the latter that he won’t insist on another term as the deputy chief minister in Bihar.
These sources said PM told the the closed-door meeting that he does not want two Modis to be in the government, which will give a handle to the opposition parties.
Narendra Modi and Sushil Modi have no relations. Sushil is a Marwari while the Prime Minister comes from a Ghanchi community, which is an OBC (Other Backward Class) in Gujarat. The only time their paths crossed was at the time of the Jaya Prakash Narayan's movement.
