MP ministers to get portfolios today

A new Congress Government took shape in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday with the swearing in of 27 ministers, all of them given the cabinet rank. With barely two months to go before the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha election kicks in, the job of the Kamal Nath Government is cut out. There is clearly no time to waste and no honeymoon period to be enjoyed.

Considerable thought seems to have gone into balancing the regional and factional representation in the ministry. The merit of some inductees, however, will be put to test once the portfolios are announced.

Significantly, supporting parties, BSP and SP, who made up for the missing numbers have been kept out of the ministry. The threat held out by Dr Hiralal Alawa of ‘Jayas’ who contested on Congress ticket and sought a ministerial berth has also been overlooked.

The factional representation shows Digvijay Singh followers getting the lion’s share with his son and nephew making it to the ministry. Nine of his supporters have been included in the ministry, claim insiders. Kamal Nath also has nine of his own supporters in the ministry. Jyotiraditya Scindia group is said to have seven of his supporters inducted while former PCC chief Arun Yadav has had to be satisfied with the induction of his brother Sachin Yadav. Arun Yadav himself lost the election to Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan. The tight-rope walk required the chief minister make two trips to Delhi to finalise the list.

The Malwa-Nimar region which anchored the BJP throughout the fifteen-year rule in the state but was under-represented during the BJP rule has been given pride of place with six ministers. Mahakoshal and Gwalior-Chambal regions have also been adequately represented. But, Bundelkhand which adjoins caste-sensitive Uttar Pradesh and has been responding well to both SP and BSP has just two ministers.

Vindhya region was a loser during the election too. The party will need to make fresh efforts to nurse the region to revive support for the general elections. The key loss in the region was that of leader of the opposition Ajay Singh during the assembly elections.

Arif Aqueel is the sole Muslim member in the team. It’s worth noting that Madhya Pradesh has got its first Muslim minister in fifteen years.

With his supporter Deepak Saksena vacating the Chhindwara seat, Chief Minister Kamal Nath would make his first entry into the state assembly through a by election to fulfil the constitutional obligation. Another senior member Narmada Prasad Prajapati seems set to be made the Speaker.

The new ministers sworn in on Tuesday are: Dr Govind Singh, Vijay Lakshmi Sadho, Arif Aqueel, Brijendra Singh Rathore, Sajjan Singh Verma, Bala Bachchan, Lakhan Singh Yadav, Hukum Singh Karada, Tulsi Silawat, Govind Rajput, Omkar Markam, Sukhdev Pansey, Prabhu RamChaudhary, Jai Vardhan Singh, Surendra Singh Baghel, Harsh Yadav, Kamleshwar Patel, Lakhan Ghanghoria, Tarun Bhanot and P C Sharma, Sachin Yadav, Jitu Patwari, Umang Singaar, Pradyumna Tiwari, Pradeep Jaiswal, Mahendra Singh Sisodia, Imarti Devi and Priyavrat Singh.