BHOPAL: Ten days after being sworn as cabinet and ministers of state in Madhya Pradesh, the 28 newly inducted ministers will finally have portfolios allocated to them on Sunday.
Ending nine days suspense over the issue, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Saturday that the portfolios will be allocated on Sunday. "Allocating portfolios is my job, don’t worry, I am saying this in Gwalior, the portfolios will be allocated tomorrow," Chouhan told journalists, after holding the meeting of the local COVID-19 Crisis Management Group meeting in Gwalior on Saturday.
The Gwalior-Chambal region, particularly Gwalior and Morena districts of the region have emerged as the new hub of the COVID-19 pandemic in the central Indian state, with 159 out of the 544 new positive cases in the state being reported from the two districts over the last 24 hours.
Importantly, the much awaited second cabinet expansion of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government had happened on the government's 102nd day on July 2 with the swearing in of 28 new ministers, including 20 cabinet ministers and eight ministers' of states.
The second cabinet expansion was dominated by the Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalists former Congress MLAs. More than a dozen new ministers came from the Gwalior-Chambal region only. But since the swearing in of the 28 new ministers, suspense was continuing over when they would be allocated portfolios.
The CM had spent two long days in Delhi discussing the issue with the BJP national leadership, but the portfolios allocation couldn’t be finalized – reportedly due to the Scindia camp’s insistence on getting the plum portfolios.
The delay in allocation of portfolios to the new ministers had not only brought the BJP and the state government on the continued target of the opposition Congress, but even BJP leaders, including ex-minister Ajay Vishnoi and former MLA Parul Sahu had indicated over social media “helplessness” of the CM in finalizing the portfolios of his ministers.