Twenty-eight BJP MLAs on December 25 took oath as Ministers in the Madhya Pradesh government as Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expanded his Cabinet.
Of the 28 Ministers, 18 MLAs including former Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and former Lok Sabha member Rakesh Singh took oath as Cabinet Ministers; six as Ministers of State (Independent Charge); and four as Ministers of State.
The portfolio distribution to the new Ministers is yet to be done and is expected in the next few days.
Mr. Patel and Mr. Singh were among the seven Lok Sabha MPs who were fielded by the BJP as part of its collective leadership strategy in the Assembly polls held in November. In the results declared on December 3, the BJP had won a massive majority with 163 seats, while the Congress had to settle with 66 seats and one constituency was bagged by the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP).
Other prominent names in the Cabinet include Pradyumna Singh Tomar, Tulsiram Silawat, Aidal Singh Kansana, Govind Singh Rajput (all four who had switched over from the Congress with Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in 2020); Vishvas Sarang and Sampatia Uikey.
The oath to the new Ministers was administered by Governor Mangubhai Patel at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan in Bhopal. The Cabinet expansion comes 12 days after Mr. Yadav was sworn in as Chief Minister along with his two deputies — Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla — on December 13.
Eye on LS polls
The BJP’s strategy of making decisions keeping the 2024 Lok Sabha elections reflected in the Cabinet expansion too as the party inducted at least 11 ministers from the Other Backward Class (OBC) community which forms more than half of Madhya Pradesh’s population.
Six MLAs from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and four Scheduled Tribe (ST) also took oath as ministers, while seven belong to the general category. Five women ministers, including Ms. Uikey and Nirmala Bhuria (both Cabinet Ministers and tribal leaders), also featured in the list.
Six first-time MLAs have also been inducted into the Cabinet.
With the Chief Minister, two Deputy Chief Ministers, the total strength of the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has now reached 31, against the maximum strength of 35.
The BJP’s central leadership, including national president J.P. Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, held at least four rounds of discussions with Mr. Yadav in New Delhi before the names of 28 leaders were finalised. Discussions with other senior leaders from Madhya Pradesh such as former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar, Mr. Scindia, Mr. Patel and Mr. Vijayvargiya were also held in the run-up to the Cabinet expansion.
