Bhopal: With three months to go for assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Saturday inducted Gaurishankar Bisen, Rajendra Shukla and Rahul Lodhi into his cabinet in a bid to bolster caste equations ahead of the crucial polls.
Bisen, a seven-time MLA and OBC leader from the Mahakaushal region, and Shukla, a four-time MLA, were inducted as ministers, while Lodhi, who is the nephew of BJP leader Uma Bharti, was inducted as a minister of state. The three are yet to be allocated portfolios.
With this move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also leaned on former chief minister Uma Bharti, who was visibly upset with the party’s top brass as was evident by her campaign against the state’s excise policy and demand for a ban on the sale of liquor in MP.
VIDEO | BJP legislators Gaurishankar Bisen, Rajendra Shukla and Rahul Lodhi sworn in as ministers in Madhya Pradesh cabinet in the presence of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Governor Mangubhai Patel at Raj Bhavan, Bhopal. pic.twitter.com/XbNiy07Ujn
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 26, 2023
The cabinet expansion — the second such in the state since 2020 — brings the total strength of the council of ministers in Madhya Pradesh to 33.
Earlier, there were 11 ministers from Malwa-Nimar region, nine from Gwalior-Chambal, four from Bundelkhand, three each from central MP and Vindhyachal, and one from Mahakaushal.
The expansion, according to the BJP sources, is aimed at balancing caste dynamics and bolstering the party’s tally in Vindhya, Bundelkhand and Mahakaushal regions where several internal surveys have found the BJP in a vulnerable position.
Bisen is the legislator from Balaghat in Mahakaushal region, a stronghold of Congress where the party had won 24 of the total 38 seats in 2018. With the induction of 71-year-old Bisen, who has in the past served as agriculture minister and is in charge of the state’s backward class commission, the BJP is hoping to improve its tally in the region.
Similarly, Shukla, the four-time Brahmin MLA from Rewa, was inducted with an aim to shore up BJP’s prospects in the Vindhya region. This region accounts for 30 seats assembly seats spread across Satna, Shahdol, Singrauli, Sidhi and Anuppur districts with a sizable number of Brahmin voters. The BJP had won 24 seats here in 2018, up from 16 in 2013.
However, according to BJP’s various internal surveys, the party was not in a favourable position here, which, coupled with growing resentment over the region’s inadequate representation in the cabinet, led to its losing the mayoral seat in Rewa and Singrauli to the Congress and the AAP, respectively, in the local body polls last July year.
Lodhi, the first-time MLA from Khargapur in Tikamgarh district, has been made a junor minister with an eye to consolidate the Other Backward Classes (OBC) voters, especially Lodhis, who dominate the Bundelkhand region.
The OBCs make up about 50 percent of the state’s total population.
Bisen and Shukla had been camping in Bhopal for the past two days, with the numbers of followers camped outside their residences swelling in anticipation of the oath-taking ceremony. The ceremony, which was to take place Friday, was delayed.
Reacting to cabinet expansion, state Congress president Kamal Nath said, “The tenure of the government is coming to an end and with it, the BJP’s rule in state as well. At this time, they are expanding the cabinet. Welcome songs are being sung when its the time for farewell. Not just expansion, even if they change the entire cabinet, their defeat is certain.”
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh too took a swipe at the BJP government.
“When the days of the government are numbered, then what good will these ministers achieve by being inducted? If they had an ounce of self-respect, they would have chosen to not be a part of this corrupt cabinet,” he said.
He even went on to ask whether Rahul Lodhi had “taken Uma Bharti’s permission before joining” CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s council of ministers.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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