12 SCINDIA SUPPORTERS AMONG 28 NEW MINISTERS TAKE OATH
BHOPAL: A long-awaited, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led cabinet was expanded on Thursday as Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office to 28 new ministers including 12 Jyotiraditya Scindia's supporters (former MLAS) at a function in Raj Bhawan here. This is the first time in the history of Madhya Pradesh where 14 non-mlas have been inducted in the council of ministers.
All these ministers are the Congress rebellions who had resigned from the Assembly in March this year to topple the Kamal Nath-led government in the state and they joined the BJP along with Scindia.
In the expansion, out of 28, 20 ministers took oath as a cabinet and 8 as a minister of state. The event was organised by following the Covid-19 protocol. In April, Narottam Mishra, Kamal Patel, Meena Singh, Tulsi Silawat and Govind
Rajput took oath as ministers in Chouhan's cabinet. On March 23, Chouhan took oath as CM after the resignation of 22 Congress' MLAS following which the Nath government lost the majority in the House.
Senior BJP leaders among the new ministers who took oath are Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh, Vijay Shah, Jagdish Devda and Yashodhara Raje Scindia. Other ministers, those inducted in the cabinet are Brijendra Pratap Singh, Vishwas Sarang, Prem Singh Patel, Om Prakash Sakhlecha, Usha Thakur, Arvind Bhadouria, Mohan Yadav, Bharat Singh Kushwaha, Indar Singh Parmar, Ram Khilawan Patel and Ram Kishore Kanbre. Congress rebellion exMLAS, who were included in cabinet are Bisahulal Singh, Endal Singh Kansana, Imarti Devi, Peabhu Ram Choudhary, Mahendra Sisodia, Pradhuman
Singh Tomar, Hardeep Singh Dang, Rajwardhan Singh, Brijendra Singh Yadav, Girraj Dandotia, Suresh Dhakad and OPS Bhadouria.
The 12 ministers are included in the cabinet from only the Gwalior-chambal region, which is considered the bastion of Jyotiraditya Scindia. The by-polls are to be held on 24 Assembly segments including 16 seats of the Chambal region in the state. Including more ministers in the cabinet from this region is considered as a crucial step of the BJP in the view of by-polls.
Several BJP senior MLAS who have been ministers many times in the BJP regime were not successful in getting a ministerial berth in the cabinet. These are Gouri Shankar Bisen, Rajendra Shukla, Ram Pal Singh, Ajay Bishnoi etc, they are also considered close to CM Chouhan.
Meanwhile, Scindia took a dig at Congress with the quip “Tiger abhi zinda hai”.
“I don't need any certificate from Kamal Nath nor Digvijaya Singh. The facts are before the people how they looted the state in 15 months,” he said.
“It is our duty to fight against injustice. Even if it means war, then Jyotiraditya Scindia will be on the frontlines. For the last two months, people have been trying to tarnish my character. I want to tell them - tiger abhi zinda hai,” he said, borrowing a popular Hindi film title.