Since he was the maternal grandfather of Emperor Daigo, the imperial court considered promoting him to a ministerial position, but all available positions were already occupied at the time, with FUJIWARA no Tokihira serving as Sadaijin (Minister of the Left) and SUGAWARA no Michizane as Udaijin (Minister of the Right) and neither of them fulfilling the requirements to be promoted to Daijo Daijin (Grand Minister of State), making it difficult to leave these ministerial positions vacant.
時の醍醐天皇の外祖父であることから、大臣への昇進が検討されたが、当時左大臣藤原時平と右大臣菅原道真がおり、いずれも太政大臣昇進の資格を満たしてはいなかったために、大臣の席を空席にすることは困難であった。