Teni faces axe in Modi team rejig

Long-time party critic Varun Gandhi likely to be denied ticket for 2024 LS elections

- NAMITA BAJPAI

AT least two of the 15 faces from UP in the Narendra Modi cabinet may be dropped in the much anticipated ministerial reshuffle, sources in the state capital said.

The two ministers likely to be dropped in the reshuffle include Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra 'Teni' and Chandauli MP and heavy industry minister Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Teni has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons since October 2021 when his son Ashish Mishra led a carcade, comprising an SUV that ran four protesting farmers over, trampling them to death in Lakhimpur Kheri.

The farmers were protesting against the three farm laws which were later repealed. Currently, Teni's son, accused of the murder of the four farmers, is out on bail but restricted from entering UP by the Supreme Court.

Sources said Teni and Mahendra Nath Pandey, both prominent Brahmin faces of the BJP, may be replaced by two caste representatives, including former UP BJP chief Laxmi Kant Bajpai, who is a Rajya Sabha member, and Harish Dwivedi, party MP from Basti in eastern UP.