BHOPAL: The much-awaited first cabinet expansion of the newly elected Dr Mohan Yadav-led BJP government finally happened on Monday, with the induction of 28 ministers, among them 18 cabinet ministers and ten ministers of state.
The 18 cabinet ministers, included four political biggies – ex-union minister Pralhad Singh Patel, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya (both were in CM’s race before Yadav was elected BJP state legislature party leader on December 12), former Jabalpur MP and ex-state party chief Rakesh Singh and third time former MP from Hoshangabad seat Uday Pratap Singh.
The 28 new ministers, however, only included six ministers of the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan regime, including Tulsi Silawat, Pradumn Singh Tomar, Govind Singh Rajput (all Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalists), Vishvas Sarang, Kunwar Vijay Shah and Inder Singh Parmar, all of who were among the 18 new cabinet ministers. Ten other ministers of the previous regime, including the former CM’s loyalist Bhupendra Singh and nine-time sitting MLA Gopal Bhargava, were not considered in Dr Yadav’s team.
Region wise break-up of the new ministry saw the new CM’s home region – the Malwa-Nimar region (which houses maximum 66 assembly seats – cornering seven posts, followed by six from the central MP, 5 ministers from tribal dominated Mahakoshal region, four each from Gwalior-Chambal and Bundelkhand regions and two from Vindhya region. With the CM and one of the deputy CMs also being from Malwa-Nimar region, the number of ministers from that area in the 31-strong council of ministers now stands at nine.
With Monday’s cabinet expansion, Dr Yadav’s council of ministers now has 31 ministers (including the CM and two deputy CMs), which means there is scope for four more inductions in the future. On expected lines, the OBCs dominated the new council of ministers headed by the OBC Dr Yadav. Out of the 28 new ministers sworn in on Monday, 12 (43%) hailed from OBC castes. Importantly, MP has around 52% OBC population, followed by 21% tribal and 16% scheduled caste population.
After the OBCs, the upper caste segment had seven ministers (25% of new ministers), five tribals (18%) and four scheduled caste MLAs (which was 14% of 28 new ministers). The 28 new MLAs sworn in as ministers by Governor Mangubhai C Patel at the Raj Bhawan on Monday, included just five women (18% of those sworn in on Monday), among them former minister Nirmala Bhuria, ex Rajya Sabha member Sampatiya Uike (both sworn in as cabinet ministers) and three new faces, including second time MLA from Govindpura (Bhopal) Krishna Gaur (who is the daughter in law of ex-CM Babulal Gaur) and first time MLAs from Vindhya region Pratima Bagri and Radha Singh. In the previous BJP regime, merely three out of the 34 ministers were women.
Age has emerged a key factor for inducting or dropping ministers, with 70-years-old ex-minister MLA Gopal Bhargava not being considered owing to age.
MP cabinet