CM Mohan Yadav inducts 17 first-time ministers with Modi-Shah's nod
By L. S. Herdenia
After a record delay of almost a fortnight Madhya Pradesh will have a new ministry headed by Dr. Mohan Yadav. The ministry was given final touches by the party high command. Twenty eight Ministers took oath on Monday. Three including the Chief Minister took oath earlier. Thus the total strength of the ministry is now 31. The Chief Minister did a balancing act of caste and region.
The composition of the ministry may appear to be unconventional as 17 of the 28 ministers, sworn in on Monday, are first-time ministers while several heavyweights failed to find a place in the new ministry. However, the BJP leadership has been quite meticulous in striking a pragmatic regional and caste balance.
The party had performed exceedingly well in all the regions except some areas of Mahakaushal and Gwalior but the party has given proportional representation to all the regions. Malwa and Nimar, which is the largest region in the state with the highest number of seats at 66, has the highest number of ministers: seven. The central region, where the party did exceedingly well, bagging 31 seats as against 5 of the Congress, has six ministers.
The Gwalior-Chambal region where the BJP's tally had been 18, as against 16 of the Congress, has been given four representatives in the ministry. On the other hand, Bundelkhand, where the party won 21 seats against five of the Congress, has four members in the Council of Ministers. Vindhya, where the BJP secured 26 seats as against four of the Congress, has got only three slots. Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla hails from this region.
Mahakaushal, where the BJP won 22 seats as against 16 of the Congress, also has four members in the Council of Ministers. The party leadership has given adequate representation to all caste groups including the STs and the SCs and the BJP did far better on 35 seats reserved for the SCs, winning 26 of them and leaving the Congress with only nine compared to tribal seats where it won 24 seats while the Congress won 22.
There are four members from the SCs among 28 new faces. One of the two deputy chief ministers, Jagdish Dewda, also belongs to the SC community.
That being said, OBCs have the lion's share with 13 ministers. Eight upper castes also found berths. All in all, 18Cabinet ministers, six ministers of state with independent charge and four ministers of state were inducted into the cabinet. The OBC factor played a dominant role in the ministry formation because it was set up on the basis of castes. The BJP leadership kept in mind the caste combinations because of their importance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
PM Narendra Modi and the BJP's promise to politically empower women also had a telling effect on cabinet formation. Among 28 ministers sworn in on Monday, 5 are women, which constitute over 16 percent of the total strength of the Council of Ministers. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet had only three women among 34 ministers, all three cabinet ministers. The Mohan Yadav ministry has five women ministers of which two are cabinet ministers, one minister of state (independent charge) and two ministers of state.
Apparently there is proportional representation of Bundelkhand as against other regions in Mohan Yadav council of ministers, but in the absence of stalwarts from the region, representation of Bundelkhand in the state council of ministers has become less palpable. Gopal Bhargava a nine-time MLA from Rehli in Sagar district, Bhupendra Singh, an MLA from Khurai – both of whom nourished their desire to replace Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister as and when the chance arrived – or Brijendra Pratap Singh, MLA from Panna and Jayant Malaiya, a veteran from Damoh, who was the Finance Minster in Shivraj's Cabinet for a decade, was given the ticket at the last minute despite being over 75 years age.
The cabinet includes stalwarts like Kailash Vijayvargiya, who happens to be national general secretary of the party, Prahalad Patel who was a union minister and was asked to contest Vidhan Sabha elections, Rakesh Singh, who was also asked to quit the Lok Sabha and Uday Pratap Singh who also quit the Lok Sabha.
Out of 34 ministers in the three-tier Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet, only nine have survived and that includes the Chief Minister and the deputy CMs. A remarkably high number of ministers in the previous ministry – twelve – had lost the election. It may be the reason why 17 new faces were sworn in on Monday.
