File photo of Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Amid aspirations running high among senior leaders of the BJP, including those who switched from the Congress in March, it’s expected that Sivraj Singh Chouhan would induct two dozen ministers into his cabinet.
- News18 Bhopal
- Last Updated: May 27, 2020, 8:34 PM IST
Amid bypolls for 24 assembly seats inching closer and aspirations running high in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet could see an expansion before May 31, when lockdown 4.0 concludes.
Earlier it was assumed that the cabinet expansion would take place on June 1, but chief minister Chouhan visiting the BJP headquarters twice in the past 24 hours and having closed-door meetings with party state unit chief VD Sharma and organisational general secretary Suhas Bhagat have sparked speculation that the development could happen sooner.
Chouhan had a lengthy meeting with two senior leaders on Tuesday as well and revisited the party head office on Wednesday.
Amid aspirations running high among senior leaders of the BJP, including those who switched from the Congress in March, it’s expected that Chouhan would induct two dozen ministers into his cabinet. Till now, Chouhan has five ministers in his team, including two from the Jyotiraditya Scindia camp.
Besides being under pressure from party seniors, observers say, Chouhan is also facing immense pressure to accommodate most of the 22 MLAs who deserted the Congress to join the BJP. It was quite apparent that most of them were upset with denial of ministerial berths in the Kamal Nath government.
Senior BJP leaders including Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh, Rajendra Shukla, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Jagdish Devda, Vishwas Sarang are among the front runners for ministerial berths.
Scindia loyalists Mahendra Singh Sisodia, Imarti Devi, Prabhuram Chaudhary, Pradyumn Singh Tomar, Ranveer Jatav and former Congressmen such as Bisahulal Singh, Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon, Aidal Singh Kansana and Hardeep Singh Dang could also be inducted into the cabinet.
With 33 ministerial berths available, Chouhan is likely to keep a few positions vacant, given the massive competition. The tussle for ministerial berths could be gauged from the fact that the cabinet rejig has been postponed several times in the recent past.
It’s also likely that some faces could be inducted from Indore, the BJP stronghold which offered positive results to the party in the past few assembly polls.
There are also rumours that several senior leaders in both the BJP and Congress may switch loyalties ahead of the bypolls. Jyotiraditya Scindia is also expected to bring a few thousand Congress workers and some leaders to the BJP in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
Among them, Premchand Guddu, who joined the BJP a couple of years ago and was expelled from the party by VD Sharma over indiscipline on Wednesday.
Guddu, a former Congress MLA, is vying for a ticket from Sanwer seat against Scindia close aide Tulsiram Silawat. With polls close by, nephew of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Anoop Mishra, too, had visited the BJP office a few days ago. Mishra, a former MP, has been sidelined from the party affairs for a while.
Given the huge number of cabinet aspirants including senior MLAs and those from the Scindia camp, it will be a tough ask for CM Chouhan to strike a balance while forming his cabinet, senior political journalist Manish Dixit said.
Speaking to News18, senior political analyst Girija Shankar said that rumours of leaders switching loyalties amid a fractured mandate are bound to come up throughout the term of the assembly. However, it’s unlikely that this swap will take place on a large scale, he said.
Those in the hunt for a cabinet berth have been making the rounds of the BJP headquarters in Bhopal over the past few weeks.
https://pubstack.nw18.com/pubsync/fallback/api/videos/recommended?source=n18english&channels=5d95e6c378c2f2492e2148a2&categories=5d95e6d7340a9e4981b2e10a&query=MP,Cabinet,Expansion,Possible,Before,May,31;,Several,Scindia,Loyalists,in,the,Hunt,BJP,Jyotiraditya,Scindia,&publish_min=2020-06-05T17:22:32.000Z&publish_max=2020-06-07T17:22:32.000Z&sort_by=date-relevance&order_by=0&limit=2
0 Comments:
Post a Comment