Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday expanded his cabinet and inducted three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs– Gauri Shankar Bisen, Rajendra Shukla and Rahul Lodhi, as ministers.
The expansion came in just months ahead of the state assembly polls scheduled for the end of this year.
Governor Mangubhai Patel administered the oath of office as minister to the three legislators at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday morning.
While Bisen and Shukla were administered oaths of office and secrecy as cabinet ministers, Lodhi was administered the oath of minister of state.
Bisen is a former agriculture minister, a seven-time MLA from Balaghat and also the chairman of the MP Backward Class Commission.
Bisen had recently conducted a Ram Katha in Balaghat in which he invited self-spiritual guru Dhirendra Shastri. This move played an important role as the record-breaking participation of the crowd was made a base by his supporters to raise the demand to include him as the minister.
Shukla is also a former minister, a Brahmin leader and four-time MLA from Rewa.
{{/usCountry}}Shukla is also a former minister, a Brahmin leader and four-time MLA from Rewa.
{{/usCountry}}In Rewa and Satna districts, there are about 25% Brahmin voters, who are currently upset with the state government following the demolition of Pravesh Shukla’s house. Pravesh is accused of urinating on a tribal man and making it a caste issue.
Rajendra Shukla has been included in the cabinet to manage such issues, according to an official aware of the matter. “The BJP will win 25 seats in 2023. I was working as an MLA but now as a minister, I can work with more. I thank the party for giving respect not to me but whole Vindhya region,” Rajendra said after being inducted into the cabinet.
Lodhi, a BJP MLA from Khargapur, Tikamgarh, has been included in the council of ministers for the first time.
Lodhi is the nephew of former chief minister Uma Bharti. In MP, there are about 9% Lodhi voters who have influence in over 65 assembly constituencies.
Lodhi was inducted to pacify Uma Bharti, who has been critical of the state government on the liquor ban and also on an ‘unbalanced cabinet’.
Bisen and Lodhi belong to the Other Backward Class (OBC) community, which makes up more than 45% of the population of Madhya Pradesh.
The name of BJP MLA from Narsinghpur Jalam Patel, the brother of Union minister Prahlad Patel, was dropped from the list after dissent among BJP leaders to include him as minister.
With the inclusion of three new ministers, there are now 34 members in the CM Chouhan-led cabinet.
A senior BJP leader said, “The decision of cabinet expansion was taken by Union home minister Amit Shah to end all the infighting and satisfy the senior leaders of BJP in MP. Many leaders, who were sidelined in the party for different reasons, have been made in charge of different committees formed for the upcoming election.”
BJP state president VD Sharma said, “For BJP leaders, one day is enough to work for the people and end their problems so time is not et all an issue.”
Congress called this cabinet expansion BJP’s nervousness to win the elections.
“The BJP realised that they are going to lose and are trying hard to befool not only voters but their leaders too with these last minute changes. This cabinet expansion is nothing but a political move and showed nervousness of losing the election with a good margin of seats,” said KK Mishra, media in-charge, MP Congress Committee.