BHOPAL: Around 22-25 new ministers may be sworn in during the much awaited expansion of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh that is likely to take place at the end of June.
Eight to ten candidates could be Jyotiraditya Scindia’s loyalists, who had quit the Vidhan Sabha and the Congress in March.
The expansion of the five-member Cabinet is a much-awaited political event for last two months, but the Covid pandemic and lack of consensus within the BJP on final names put a spanner on the crucial exercise in the state.
The exercise was also deferred to ensure that there was no sabotage from within the party in the June 19 Rajya Sabha poll, in which the BJP won two of the three seats on expected lines. Two days ago, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a meeting over the issue with BJP state president VD Sharma and state general secretary (organisation) Suhas Bhagat for finalising the list of the possible new ministers.
Chouhan, who is presently on a religious trip to South India and is slated to return to Bhopal on Saturday evening, will be in Delhi within the next few days to get the BJP brass’ nod for the Cabinet expansion.