28 MLAs take oath as ministers in Mohan Yadav-led MP Cabinet
Bhopal: The long-awaited expansion of Mohan Yadav-led Madhya Pradesh Cabinet finally took place on Monday after 28 BJP MLAs were sworn in as Ministers at Raj Bhawan in Bhopal.
MP Governor Mangubhai Patel administered the oath of office and secrecy as a minister to 28 legislators, including the party’s stalwarts Kailash Vjayvargiya and Prahlad Patel, and 5 first-time MLAs.
5 women legislators have also been included in the Cabinet. In the total strength of the council, 7, 14, 5 and 5 legislators from the Upper Caste, OBCs, SC and ST communities respectively have been included.
The first-term MLAs who have been inducted into the Cabinet are Sampatiya Uikey (Minister of State Independent charge), Narendra Shivaji Patel, Pratima Bagri, Ahirwar Dilip and Radha Singh (all are MoS).
On this occasion, CM Yadav and his Deputies Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla were present, the trio leaders had taken the oath of their post on December 13 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since then, the Cabinet expansion was awaited.
Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the Ministers on Monday, CM Yadav said the new Cabinet will work for the state’s betterment under the guidance of PM Modi and other senior leaders.
As many as 18 MLAs took the oath as Cabinet Ministers Kuwanr, including Vijay Shah, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prahlad Singh Patel, Rakesh Singh, Rao Uday Pratap Singh, Sampatiya Uikey, Tulsi Ram Silawat, Aidal Singh Kansana, Nirmala Bhuriya, Vishwas Sarang, Narayan Singh Kushwaha, Nagar Singh Chouhan, Pradhuman Singh Tomar, Rakesh Shukla, Chaitanya Kashyap, Inder Singh Parmar and Karan Singh Verma. Prahlad Patel, Rakesh Singh and Uday Pratap Singh have also been elected MLA first time, however, they have been Lok Sabha MP several times.
Besides, 6 legislators were administered as Minister of State (Independent Charge), they are Krishna Gaur, Dharmendra Singh Lodhi, Dilip Jaiswal, Gautam Tetwal, Lakhan Patel and Narayan Singh Pawar.
With this first expansion, the Cabinet’s strength has been 31 including CMs and Deputy CMs. The maximum strength of the state council ministers can increase to 35 in the 230-membered Assembly.
In the recently concluded Assembly polls, the BJP had registered a landslide victory bagging 163 seats while Congress secured 66 and one was won by an Independent.
BJP has fielded 7 Lok Sabha MPs including Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, and Rakesh Singh, Ganesh Singh, Uday Pratap and Riti Pathak in this election, out of them Kulaste and Ganesh Singh were faced defeat. The party’s national general secretary, Vijayvargiya has also contested the Assembly polls. Riti was not inducted in this expansion while Tomar has been made Assembly speaker.
Notably, senior leaders and several times legislators Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh and Jayant Malaiya have not succeded in getting a ministerial berth. The trio are considered influential leaders in the Bundelkhand region.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia who quit Congress and joined the Congress in March 2020 leading to topple of the Kamal Nath government has succeded in inducting their mostly supporters in the Cabinet.
