Chouhan expands Cabinet, rewards 2 Congress rebels

Bhopal, April 21

Amid the coronavirus crisis, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday expanded his Cabinet for the first time by inducting five ministers, two of them Congress rebels who joined the BJP, nearly a month after taking charge.

The five new ministers, three of them sitting MLAs and two former legislators, were sworn-in by Governor Lalji Tandon in the afternoon at Raj Bhawan here.

The swearing-in ceremony, attended by Chouhan, was kept low-key in view of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Social distancing norms were followed at the ceremony.

Among the new entrants in the Cabinet, two ex-Congress MLAs Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput, are supporters of former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who along with 22 MLAs, including six ministers, quit the Congress last month to join the BJP. The other ministers who took oath are Narottam Mishra (Brahmin), Meena Singh (Scheduled Tribe) and Kamal Patel (OBC), all sitting BJP MLAs.

The 15-month-old Congress government headed by Kamal Nath collapsed last month after 22 MLAs of the then ruling party — supporters of Scindia — revolted and resigned, paving the way for the BJP to assume power in the key central state where the saffron party had narrowly lost polls in 2018. — PTI