BJP president’s Sasural missed out in Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet
The much-awaited second cabinet expansion of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government finally happened on Thursday.
While Indore, Bhopal, and Gwalior all got representation in the cabinet, national BJP president JP Nadda’s Sasural Jabalpur drew blank.
There was no minister from Jabalpur neither in the first cabinet expansion in April nor in the second cabinet expansion, despite the council of ministers being 34-strong.
While Mahakoshal region has three ministers now in the Shivraj cabinet with two berths in the second expansion, Jabalpur lost out in the race despite former minister and Patan MLA Ajay Bishnoi being in the race.
Dada’s silence could cost BJP dear
Ramesh Mendola, popularly known as Dada Dayalu among his supporters in Indore, is maintaining studied silence after missing out ministerial berth in the recent cabinet expansion.
Mendola is a three-time MLA from Indore-II winning by the maximum margin in 2013 and 2018 elections.
While his supporters protested on Indore’s streets as well as on social media, Mendola himself is silent.
However, BJP sources believe that his silence could prove costly to the party in the bulk assembly polls, particularly in the Sanwer seat of Indore. Mendola is considered close to BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.
MP’s Nitin Menon in ICC elite panel of umpires
Nitin Menon from Madhya Pradesh has become only the third Indian to be inducted into the ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires. 36-year-old Nitin is the youngest umpire in the 12-member elite panel of cricket’s highest body.
Earlier, S Venkatraghavan and Sunderam Ravi from India have been part of the elite panel. Nitin’s father Narendra Menon was also a renowned umpire.
Nitin stood in his first Twenty20 International match between India and England in 2017. He later stood in his first ODI match between Afghanistan and Ireland also in 2017.
He was named as one of the umpires for the 2018 ICC Women World Twenty20.
Jeetu Soni arrested, cops trace his helpers
After nabbing the most-wanted Jeetu Soni from Gujarat, the Indore crime branch is now tracing all those contacts, who all helped the fugitive to hide in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
A Rajkot-based bookie, who helped Soni stay underground for months, is under police’s radar. Soni, an influential businessman and owner of Sanjha Lokswami tabloid in Indore was accused in 60 cases.
The first case was lodged against him after his tabloid published transcripts of conversation between women operatives of the high-profile honey trap racket which jolted the the state.