New Delhi: Three days after he expanded his cabinet in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is yet to allocate portfolios. The reason: A tussle for plum posts between his loyalists, those backing former senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and the BJP new guard supported by the party high command in Delhi.
Twenty-eight new ministers — 20 with cabinet rank and eight ministers of state — took oath at the Raj Bhavan in Bhopal Thursday to take the total strength of the council of ministers to 33.
But none of the 28 has got a portfolio yet.
Of those newly inducted, 12 are Scindia loyalists. Two others had been inducted earlier. BJP sources said these 12 are at the heart of the tussle for portfolios.
“The 12 Scindia loyalists are seeking plum portfolios, including those that some of them held in the previous Congress government,” a BJP source told ThePrint. “They are insisting on revenue, transport, health, school education, food and supplies, labour and women and child development. They are also asking for the home ministry that is currently held by Narottam Mishra. This has caused the delay in portfolio distribution.”
Another senior BJP leader said the chief minister has now decided to let the party high command in Delhi settle the issue. “The chief minister is meeting central leaders to finalise this list,” the senior leader said. “He will also meet Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar (who is from MP) and Scindia before any allocation.”
Chouhan had held discussions with Scindia Friday, a day after the cabinet expansion, but they did not reach a consensus on the portfolios.
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Three-way tussle
The clamour for plum posts isn’t reserved to the Scindia faction alone. There is also a power tussle between the state BJP old guard, backed by the chief minister, and the party’s new guns who have the blessings of the high command.
Shivraj’s old guard of Bhupendra Singh, Gopal Bhargava, Vijay Shah, Prem Singh Patel, Vishwas Sarang are exerting pressure on the chief minister to retain the big portfolios. The party’s younger Cabinet ministers — Ramkhelawan Patel, Mohan Yadav, Om Prakash Sakhlecha, Bharat Singh Kushwaha, Ram Kishore and Jagdish Devda — have also sought a decent share of posts.
“The chief minister is keen on allocating finance, revenue, mineral, energy and PWD (Public Works Department) to his own supporters,” a second BJP source said. “Home and health are now held by Narrotam Mishra. In Chouhan’s earlier cabinet, Bhupendra Singh was home minister. If Mishra’s portfolio is changed, it will send out a wrong message but the Scindia camp wants health from Mishra. Tulsi Silawat (a Scindia loyalist inducted earlier) was the health minister in the Kamal Nath government.”
Public relations is another crucial department in the state that is usually held by the chief minister, and Chouhan has to also find a finance minister as the man who held the portfolio in the chief minister’s earlier term, Jayant Malaya, lost the 2018 assembly elections.
BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha told ThePrint that it has no choice but to accommodate Scindia’s supporters. “The bottom line is that the party high command has communicated to the state unit that we have returned to power due to Scindia and his supporters,” he said. “This should be respected in letter and spirit. It is a balance it has to maintain.”
The Scindia faction, however, denied suggestions it was holding out for plum posts. “There is no such resentment over portfolio distribution; our top-most priority now is to win the byelections. The entire organisation is working towards this goal,” Tulsi Silawat told ThePrint. “Everybody will accept whatever the chief minister and Scindiaji decide.”
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