New Delhi: Eight months after assuming power, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has kept Indore, the state’s economic power engine, under his watch, while deputing less significant districts to powerful ministers Kailash Vijayvargiya and Prahlad Patel.
Vijayvargiya was assigned Satna and Dhar on Monday night, whereas Patel — a chief minister contender and OBC leader who also served in the Union Cabinet — got the responsibility of Bhind and Rewa.
The district of Singrauli, known for mining, was assigned to Public Health Minister Sampatiya Uike. MSME minister Chetan Kashyap was made in-charge of Bhopal, and Jyotiraditya Scindia’s aide Tulsi Silawat was assigned Gwalior.
Significantly, the Union Minister managed to retain hold on his strongholds. Like Gwalior, Shivpuri and Guna also went to Scindia acolytes.
In the Madhya Pradesh’s 31-minister Cabinet, seven were assigned one district each while 23 senior ministers, including Vijayvargiya, Patel, Silawat, Jagdish Devda, Rajendra Shukla, Vijay Shah, Rakesh Singh, made in-charge minister of two districts each.
Yadav’s deputy Jagdish Devda was assigned to Jabalpur and Dewas. Jabalpur is the home district of PWD minister Rakesh Singh. Rajendra Shukla, the other deputy chief minister, got responsibilities of Sagar and Shahdol.
Chhindwara, the home district of Congress heavyweight Kamal Nath, was assigned to Rakesh Singh, a former state BJP chief.
The chief minister’s home district of Ujjain fell in the kitty of Minister of State Gautam Tetwal. In the Shivraj Chouhan era, Finance Minister Jagdish Devda was in-charge of Ujjain, the cultural capital of Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, Narottam Mishra, the second most important minister back at that time, oversaw the happenings of Indore.
Earlier, Singrauli was held by mining minister Brijendra Pratap Singh in line with the needs of the mining sector. Bhopal was previously under Chouhan loyalist Bhupendra Singh. This time, the responsibility is with MSME Minister Chetan Kashyap.
Indore is the financial capital and business hub of the central state with imprints ranging from manufacturing, automobile, pharmaceutical, software and textile, agro industry, and service sector. Additionally, Indore has developed as an education hub due to the presence of IIT, IIM and various other educational institutions.
Shivraj never deputed himself as in-charge of district, and instead made senior leaders like Gopal Bhargava as Indore in-charge, according to the party insiders.
Bhopal draws its significance primarily being the state capital and being a BJP stronghold.
Singrauli is another important district due to the concentration of power plants and mines, ranging from those of NTPC, Coal India, Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), Adani, Hindalco, and Reliance Power.
Scindia gets his men at right places
Silawat, the Water Resources Minister, retained Gwalior, which he held in the Shivraj Cabinet too. Gwalior, also called second Nagpur due to the RSS activities, is the home district of Vijaya Raje Scindia, a founder member of the BJP.
Food and Supply Minister Govind Singh Rajput was assigned Guna and Narsinghpur, while Energy Minister Pradhuman Singh Tomar handed the responsibility of Shivpuri and Pandhurna.
“The in-charge minister role became important due to segregation of power in handling district affairs. Not only every transfer, posting is routed through the in-charge minister, even the district collector and SP become answerable to the minister. From administrative governance to taking meetings with MLAs, MP as well as the responsibility to manage party electoral graph, an in-charge minister in a way works as chief minister of assigned district in managing affairs and taking decision of every activity,” a BJP functionary told ThePrint.
BJP MP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal defended Vijayvargiya’s deputation to Satna and Dhar, suggesting that nothing much should be read in these deputations.
“In-charges have been made to distribute work and smooth functioning of districts. It should not be seen as a setback and promotion of any individual,” he told ThePrint.
A BJP state vice-president explained Vijayvargiya had already handled the affairs of important districts in the past.
“Vijayvargiya was in-charge of Dhar, Jhabua and Ujjain when he was minister in the Shivraj Chouhan government of 2008-2013. He has also held responsibilities of tribal districts, which are important for the BJP footprint. That is why he has been assigned Satna and Dhar while Prahlad Patel has been assigned Rewa and Bhind,” he asserted.
But a former minister from Chouhan days conceded that the assignments reflected how senior leaders were kept at arm’s length.
“Shivraj kept Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh, Narottam Mishra, Brijendra Pratap, Jagdish Devda in important districts while assigning less significant districts to Vijayvargiya. CM Yadav, too, is using Shivraj playbook of keeping political heavyweights in lesser significant districts,“ the former minister said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)