Bhopal: BJP MLAs Tulsiram Silawat, Pradhuman Singh Tomar, and Govind Singh Rajput, considered close to Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, have found place in the Mohan Yadav cabinet in Madhya Pradesh.
After Scindia had brought down the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in 2020, 11 of the 22 MLAs, who had joined the BJP with him, were inducted as ministers. Of these 11 ministers, seven were state cabinet ministers and four were minister of state.
In the Nath cabinet, there were six ministers considered close to Scindia, the scion of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family.
Silawat, Tomar and Rajput, who represent Sanwer, Gwalior East and Surkhi in the assembly, were among the 28 ministers inducted in the new BJP government on Monday.
Of the 18 Scindia loyalists who contested this time, 10 won and eight lost. Silawat, Tomar and Rajput were also among the six faces of the Scindia camp to have served as ministers in the Congress government, which lasted 15 months.
Imarti Devi, Mahendra Singh Sisodia and Prabhuram Choudhary were the other three Scindia loyalists in the Nath cabinet. While Devi and Sisodia lost this time, Choudhary won but didn’t make the cut in the Mohan Yadav cabinet.
Devi was the women and child development minister in the Congress rule, a charge she retained till her loss in the November 2020 assembly bypoll after switching over to the BJP.
In the Chouhan-led BJP government, there were 11 ministers from Scindia’s home turf Gwalior-Chambal belt.. Out of those 11, eight won in 2023, of which four became ministers. But barring Tomar, the other three ministers Aidal Singh, Narayan Singh Kushwaha, Rakesh Shukla who were elected as MLAs from the area do not belong to the Scindia camp. There are four ministers from Mahakaushal.
Senior BJP leaders said that the ministerial faces have been chosen factoring in the “social balance and representation for all communities”. “The cabinet reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas,” BJP state president V.D. Sharma said in Bhopal.
Professor Yatindra Sisodia, Director of the Ujjain-based MP Institute of Social Sciences, said the BJP has given sizable representation to OBCs and tribal communities in the cabinet. Tribal faces in the cabinet include Kuwar Vijay Shah, Nirmala Bhuriya, Sampatiya Uikey, while the number of forward caste ministers stand at six.
“This is something new where the BJP has very effectively handled the caste and regional equation and inducted 13 new faces and five women ministers. They have also dropped heavyweights such as Usha Thakur in Indore, Bhupendra Singh and Gopal Bhargav in Sagar, and four ministers from Gwalior-Chambal region to strike a balance among regions,” Sisodia said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Wake-up calls, beneficiary mapping & younger workers — how BJP powered pro-incumbency wave in MP