Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prahlad Patel among 28 sworn in as Madhya Pradesh ministers

Twenty eight MLAs, including Kailash Vijayvargiya and Prahlad Singh Patel, were on Monday inducted into the Madhya Pradesh cabinet led by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. Governor Mangubhai Patel administered the oath in a simple ceremony.

Eighteen leaders took oath as cabinet ministers, six as Ministers of State (independent charge) and four as Minister of State.

While five among 28 are women, 12 come from the OBC community, five are tribals and four others are from the SC category, a BJP functionary said. Four loyalists of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also found a place in the council of ministers. With the first expansion of Yadav’s cabinet, the total strength is 31.

Some senior leaders who were ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government could not get a berth in the Yadav’s cabinet. At least 10 of them, including MLAs Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh and Visahu Lal, were dropped. Besides, Sidhi MLA Reeti Pathak (who was MP but fielded for Assembly election by BJP) was not accommodated in the cabinet. Narendra Singh Tomar has been made the Speaker of the Assembly.

However, there were surprises as well with the inclusion of six first-time MLAs - Prahlad Singh Patel, Rakesh Singh, Sampatia Uike, Narendra Patel, Pratima Bagri, Radha Singh. Among them, Prahlad Patel was MP from Damoh and the Union minister at the Centre. He won the Assembly election from Narsinghpur seat. Rakesh Singh was MP from Jabalpur and he became MLA by winning from Jabalpur West.

With the induction of 28 ministers, the total strength of the Yadav cabinet has now gone up to 31, including the chief minister and his two deputies Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda.

The maximum strength of the council of ministers in Madhya Pradesh, which has 230 MLAs, can be 35, including the chief minister.