BHOPAL: A day after Madhya Pradesh saw a clean sweep of 29 Lok Sabha seats by the BJP, the state party circles, while hoping for four-five berths in Narendra Modi’s new team, are speculating who all will finally make it to the next union council of ministers. Several names are doing rounds, but former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Faggan Singh Kulaste and state BJP chief VD Sharma remain the front runners.
A win of 8.21 lakh votes from saffron citadel Vidisha makes the former MP CM and sixth-time MP from the central MP seat a strong favourite to get a key
Hints about a future role for Chouhan in Delhi were already dropped by PM Modi at a poll rally in Narmadapuram district in April. Further, Scindia -- who was already a key minister in Modi 2.0 and is considered close to both Modi and Amit Shah -- is again nearly certain to get a major responsibility in the union cabinet, given his past performance of heading the civil aviation and steel ministries.
Scindia won his Guna seat by a margin of 5.40 lakh votes. Another contender for a union cabinet berth is state BJP president VD Sharma, who retained his Khajuraho seat by 5.41 lakh votes. Other contenders for place in the Modi 3.0 team include union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste, a powerful tribal leader, who won the Mandla-ST seat record seventh time, this time by over one lakh votes. Union minister Dr Virendra Khatik, who won from Tikamgarh-SC seat fourth time, is also in the race for another stint in Team Modi, particularly over being the SC face.
The other probable includes fifth-time OBC MP from Satna seat Ganesh Singh, second time Indore MP Shankar Lalwani (who won by 11.72 lakh votes and may get Modi’s nod for being from the Sindhi community) and the second-time MP from Shahdol-ST seat Himadri Singh.
Third-time Mandsaur MP Sudhir Gupta too remains a strong contender. Not just newly elected LS members, but woman Rajya Sabha member Sumitra Valmiki may be considered. There were five ministers in Modi 2.0 regime — Scindia, Khatik, Kulaste, Prahlad Patel and Narendra Tomar.