BHOPAL: Two days after he triggered a mini political crisis of sorts for the Mohan Yadav-led government in Madhya Pradesh, the state’s cabinet minister for scheduled caste welfare Nagarsingh Chouhan said on Wednesday that the party has promised to take care of his concerns in future.
“I met the CM Dr Mohan Yadav, state BJP president VD Sharma and party’s state general secretary (organization) Hitanand in Bhopal on Tuesday late night. I’ve been assured that my concerns will be duly addressed in the near future. All is well now.” Chouhan told The New Indian Express over the phone on Wednesday.
Sources close to Chouhan said that former CM and current Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP chief VD Sharma have played a key role in ending the mini crisis. The two leaders took it up with the party's central leadership, after which the state party leadership was asked to amicably resolve the issue on Tuesday itself.
Chouhan, the fourth-time tribal MLA from western MP’s Alirajpur district, subsequently flew from Delhi with the state BJP chief VD Sharma to Bhopal, where a late night meeting happened with CM Mohan Yadav, state party general secretary (organization) Hitanand and state party chief VD Sharma.
Subsequently, videos and pictures of all four leaders including Chouhan went viral, apparently conveying the message that the crisis was over and all was well now.
A day later on Wednesday, Chouhan’s first-time MP wife Anita Chouhan raised the issue of lack of adequate health facilities in her native Alirajpur district, which has compelled the tribal dominant district in western MP to be largely dependent on adjoining Gujarat for health care.
Raising the issue on the third day of the ongoing budget session of the Lok Sabha, the first-time MP from Ratlam-ST seat demanded that a medical college be sanctioned to Alirajpur or Jhabua districts to address the issue of lack of adequate health care facilities in the Bhilala-tribe dominated district.
The 46-year-old Nagarsingh Chouhan, the cabinet minister for forest and environment and scheduled caste welfare, was upset over the loss of the forest and environment portfolio to six-time former Congress MLA Ramnivas Rawat on Sunday. He threatened on Monday, not only to quit as a minister, but also added that his wife Anita Chouhan too may quit as a Lok Sabha member if the concerns were not addressed.
According to key political sources in Bhopal, a mini cabinet reshuffle is on the cards in Bhopal, where some senior BJP MLAs may be inducted in the cabinet. Also, the possibility of a few existing ministers being dropped cannot be ruled out. Chouhan’s concerns may also be addressed in the same exercise.