BHOPAL: Around 14 ministers of the current Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government and at least five ministers of Kamal Nath-led erstwhile Congress government may well find themselves on a sticky wicket on December 3, the day of the counting of votes polled in the November 17 assembly polls.
A week after the highest ever 77%-plus turnout in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, inputs from ground zero suggest that at least 14 ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, including five Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalist ministers, may be locked in the closest of poll battles from their citadels, particularly due to rising anti-incumbency against them.
The list of such ministers, includes nine cabinet ministers and five ministers of state, the prominent among whom are, home minister Narottam Mishra from Datia seat, agriculture minister Kamal Patel (Harda seat), animal husbandry minister Prem Singh Patel (Barwani), MSME minister Om Prakash Sakhlecha (Jawad-Neemuch), tourism and culture minister Usha Thakur (Mhow-Indore) and cooperatives minister Arvind Singh Bhadoria (Ater-Bhind).
Among the ministers of state, Bharat Singh Kushwah (Gwalior-Rural), school education minister Inder Singh Parmar (Shujalpur) and backward castes and minority welfare minister Ramkhelawan Patel (Amarpatan-Maihar) too, may find themselves in a difficult situation on the counting day.
The five Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalist ministers (who were among then 22 Congress MLAs, who toppled the Kamal Nath-led 15-month-old Congress regime in March 2020) too are believed to be caught in the tightest of contests.
They included cabinet ministers – revenue and transport minister Govind Singh Rajput (Surkhi-Sagar), panchayati raj and rural development minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia (Bamori-Guna) and industrial policy and investment promotion minister Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon (Badnawar-Dhar).
‘Anti-incumbency’
Inputs from ground zero suggest that at least 14 ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, including five Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalist ministers, may be locked in the closest of poll battles from their citadels, particularly due to rising anti-incumbency against them.