Madhya Pradesh: CM Mohan Yadav to expand Cabinet, induct 28 ministers today

A BJP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yadav’s Cabinet will have new faces and senior leaders, including members of Parliament, who successfully contested the assembly elections

Published on: Dec 25, 2023, 11:06:37 IST

By Shruti Tomar

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As many as 28 ministers were likely to be sworn in as part of the first expansion of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav’s council of ministers on Monday, days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) implemented a generational shift by naming him as the state’s top elected official.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav. (PTI)

A BJP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Yadav’s Cabinet will have new faces and senior leaders, including members of Parliament, who successfully contested the state assembly elections. Some ministers in the previous government were also likely to be sworn in.

Yadav handed over the list of the ministers to be inducted to Governor Mangubhai Patel ahead of the expansion. Patel was scheduled to administer the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at 3.30pm.

The BJP stormed back to power in Madhya Pradesh this month, winning 163 of 230 seats while Congress bagged 66.

Yadav, 58, and his deputies, Jagdish Deoda and Rajendra Shukla, were sworn in on December 13. The three-time lawmaker was named the chief minister, replacing Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who ruled the central Indian state for 16 of the last 18 years over four terms.

A strong votary of hardline Hindu politics, Yadav hit the headlines last week when he promised to work to shift the Prime Meridian, the line of longitude used as the global reference for time, from Greenwich (England) to Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain.

Yadav told the state assembly that his government would “prove that Ujjain is the global Prime Meridian”. He stressed that he would push to “correct the time of the world”, referencing an ancient Hindu astronomical belief that the city was once considered India’s central meridian.

He blamed Westernisation for ruining the world and said his government would collaborate with scientific minds to reverse this “rot”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shruti Tomar
I have spent over a decade chronicling Madhya Pradesh’s political and social landscape, covering politics, investigative journalism, crime, human interest, and government policy, blending sharp insight with ground‑level depth. I have closely tracked three assembly elections, three Lok Sabha elections, leadership transitions in MP while exposing governance lapses, tender irregularities, and flawed policy rollouts. My reports have revealed gaps in the Cheetah project, irregularities in medical education, rigging in recruitment exams, and loopholes in policy implementation. In crime reporting, I have moved beyond FIRs to map systemic patterns — from organised crime networks and gender‑based violence to custodial accountability — balancing urgency with sensitivity. My journalism is defined by a commitment to human interest. I have profiled the marginalised Bancchda community, documented atrocities against tribal groups, and highlighted efforts to preserve their culture through heritage liquor and revival of spiritual practices. I have reported on farmers struggling with failed MSP promises, giving voice to those often reduced to statistics in policy files. Passionate about field reporting, I have reported on rampant sand mining in Chambal and Narmada, pharmaceutical companies supplying medicines under altered names, the dire condition of schools and colleges, the plight of commercial sex workers, and skewed sex ratios in specific districts. Beyond deadlines, and as HT’s state correspondent and assistant editor in Madhya Pradesh, I engage with ministers, farmers, students, and activists, believing the best policy stories begin with a single human voice. A postgraduate in Journalism and Mass Communication, I also hold a diploma in sports journalism.Read More

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