Raipur, Aug 20 (PTI) Three BJP MLAs were inducted into Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai’s cabinet in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, raising its strength to 14, the highest in the state’s history which traditionally had a 13-member cabinet.
Governor Ramen Deka administered the oath of office and secrecy to BJP legislators Rajesh Agrawal, Guru Khushwant Saheb and Gajendra Yadav, all first-time MLAs, at a function held in the Raj Bhavan here.
The portfolios of the newly-appointed ministers were yet to be announced.
CM Sai, assembly speaker Raman Singh, state ministers and other leaders attended the function.
Since the formation of the state (in 2000), which has a 90-member assembly, 13 MLAs, including the chief minister, have traditionally been part of the cabinet.
Before this expansion, the Chhattisgarh cabinet had 11 members, including CM Sai.
Chhattisgarh has adopted the “Haryana model,” where 14 ministers, including the CM, serve in a 90-member assembly, according to sources.
The constitutional provisions allow that the size of a state’s Council of Ministers, including the CM, cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the assembly.
For Chhattisgarh, with 90 members, the limit comes to 13.5, which makes room for 14 cabinet members.
The expanded cabinet reflects a balance of caste and regional representation.
Of the three newly inducted ministers, Yadav hails from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, Saheb from Scheduled Caste and Agrawal from the general category.
After the expansion, the cabinet now has seven members belonging to the OBC — Deputy CM Arun Sao, ministers Lakhan Lal Dewangan, Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, OP Choudhary, Tank Ram Verma, Laxmi Rajwade and newly-inducted Gajendra Yadav.
CM Sai, ministers Ram Vichar Netam and Kedar Kashyap hail from the Scheduled Tribes, ministers Dayaldas Baghel and newly-inducted Guru Khushwant Saheb are from the SC category, while Deputy CM Vijay Sharma and Rajesh Agrawal are from the general category.
Laxmi Rajwade is the only woman member in the cabinet.
After the cabinet expansion, the Sai-led government has five members from Surguja division (in north Chhattisgarh), three from Bilaspur division, two from Raipur division, three from Durg division and one from Bastar division (in south Chhattisgarh).
With Wednesday’s expansion, the Sai government has ensured representation from all major communities and regions, further consolidating its social and political base in the state. say political analysts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the state by ousting the Congress in the assembly polls held in November 2023.
The BJP won 54 seats, while the Congress got 35 seats, down from 68 it won in the 2018 elections.
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, along with Deputy CMs Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma, took oath on December 13, 2023. Nine ministers were inducted later that month.
The then MLA and minister Brijmohan Agrawal resigned last year after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Raipur.
Profiles of new ministers are as follows: 1. Rajesh Agrawal (58), legislator from the Ambikapur seat in Surguja division, defeated senior Congress leader and former deputy CM T S Singh Deo by just 94 votes in the 2023 aAssembly election. A first-time MLA, Agrawal hails from the Vaishya community.
After being elected as MP from Raipur parliamentary, senior BJP leader Brijmohan Agarwal resigned as state minister. Since then, it was believed that an MLA from the Vaishya community would be given a place in the cabinet.
Senior leaders Amar Agarwal, Sunil Soni and Sampat Agarwal are also BJP MLAs from this community, but the party has expressed confidence in first-time legislator Rajesh Agarwal. He joined the BJP after quitting Congress in 2018.
2. Guru Khushwant Saheb (36) represents the Arang constituency reserved for SC category.
He is the son of Satnami sect leader Baldas Saheb and the duo joined the BJP after quitting Congress ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.
The Satnami sect, followed by a majority of the SC population in Chhattisgarh, accounts for around 13 per cent of the state’s population and is considered a crucial vote bank.
3. Gajendra Yadav, MLA from Durg, belonging to the numerically strong OBC Yadav community, comes from the RSS background.
In 2023, he defeated Congress leader Arun Vora, son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Motilal Vora, by nearly 49,000 votes.
Gajendra Yadav’s father Bisra Ram Yadav had been the Prant Sanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Chhattisgarh in the past.
Earlier, senior BJP leader late Hemanchand Yadav, who also hailed from Yadav community and was elected as a MLA from same Durg constituency, served as minister from 2003 to 2013 during then Raman Singh-led BJP governments in the state. PTI TKP GK
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