BJP to field candidate for deputy speaker post
The hopes of opposition Congress to bag Vidhan Sabha deputy speaker’s post seem to have hit a roadblock after the ruling BJP said it would install a party member at the post. The saffron party already ensured that its nominee Girish Gautam elected as the speaker. Cabinet minister Vishvas Sarang said on Wednesday the practice started by previous Kamal Nath regime of having both the speaker and deputy speaker from the ruling party will continue. In 2019, while the Congress was in power, both parties contesting the election for both key posts of the assembly. Having majority, the Congress had won both posts.
BJP veterans from Vindhya eye ministerial berths
The ruling BJP’s expectation that disappointment among its ranks in the Vindhya region would be a thing of the past following the election of four-time legislator Girish Gautam as Vidhan Sabha speaker on Monday, could be misplaced. Another four-time BJP MLA from the Vindhya region, Sidhi MLA Kedarnath Shukla, who was also in the race for speaker’s post has made it clear that like any other seasoned politician, after missing out on the speaker’s post, he is now keen at getting a ministerial berth in CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s team. The veteran politician isn’t the lone BJP politician from Vindhya region eyeing a ministerial berth, but other politicians, including three former ministers, Rajendra Shukla, Nagendra Singh and Nagendra Singh too are among those eyeing a place in the council of ministers.
Rs 4.58 crore spent to repair bungalows
Amid the pandemic, the stage government spent Rs 4.58 crore on refurbishing the bungalows of CM and ministers. The BJP government which has often talked about poor fiscal health during the Covid-19 times has spent a whopping Rs 4.58 crore on sprucing up official bungalows of the ministers in Bhopal during the same period. According to the information given by the PWD minister Gopal Bhargava in the Vidhan Sabha in reply to a Congress MLA’s question, maximum Rs 1 crore was spent on CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s bungalow.
I-T searches lead to undisclosed income of Rs 450 crore
Recent searches by the Income Tax department on the premises of a business group owned by Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Nilay Daga’s family in MP, Maharashtra and West Bengal allegedly unearthed undisclosed income of over Rs 450 crore. As per the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) official statement, the ongoing probe also reflects unexplained cash payment and hawala transactions of over Rs 15 crore, besides financial links with Kolkata-based shell companies.