Madhya Pradesh: Scindia rules in Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s expanded cabinet

Jyotiraditya Scindia extracted a substantial price for helping the BJP topple the Kamal Nath government as nine of his 22 loyalists, who had defected to the BJP in March this year , were inducted in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's cabinet, which was expanded on Thursday from five to 33, including 20 cabinet and eight state ministers. They had camped in Bengaluru till the BJP ensured the fall of the 15-month-old Congress government.

Two Scindia supporters were already in the five-member cabinet that was formed in April. With the induction of three more Congress defectors in it, the BJP’s cabinet has around 40% former Congress MLAs. Senior Congress leaders Bisahulal Singh, who had gone back to Congress camp briefly after returning from Bengaluru before switching his loyalty again, and Aidal Singh Kansana and Hardip Singh Dang were not Scindia loyalists but joined the rebellion.

While the Scindia faction walked away with a king's share, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan turned out to be a big loser as most of his trusted aides were denied berths in the cabinet despite hectic lobbying for past many days.

In all, 14 of the 22 former Congress legislators who camped in Bengaluru to ensure the fall of the Congress government are now ministers — ten of them Cabinet and four ministers of state.

Dr Prabhuram Chaudhary, Imarti Devi, Pradhyman Singh Tomar and Mahendra Singh Sisodiya are four Scindia loyalists who were ministers in the Kamal Nath government too. Tulsiram Silawat and Govind Rajput, who were inducted on April 21, were also ministers in the Congress government.

Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh, Vijay Shah, Jagdish Devda, Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Vishwas Sarang were the BJP leaders who made it to the Cabinet on Thursday.

They were ministers in Chouhan’s previous governments. However, barring Bhupendra Singh and Vishwas Sarang, none of the old faces are considered the chief minister’s acolytes. Among the newcomers in the cabinet, most of them owe their induction to the BJP high command which had categorically told Chouhan to replace his trusted allies of the past cabinet with fresh faces. This includes Arvind Bhadoriya, who played an active role in the rebellion against the Kamal Nath government, firebrand leader from Indore, Usha Thakur, and Mohan Yadav.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan Cabinet now has 34 ministers, leaving little scope for further expansion. The expansion seems to have been dictated by the crucial bye-elections for 24 seats that will decide the stability of the BJP government, which completed 100 days on July 1.

Most of these seats fall in the Gwalior-Chambal region, where Scindia enjoys influence.

Chouhan had taken oath alone on March 23, the night before the Prime Minister announced the nationwide lockdown. After working alone until April 21, he inducted five ministers, including two loyalists of Scindia.

Over the last few days there were hectic parleys in New Delhi and Bhopal on who will make it to the Cabinet because the party walked on a tightrope to accomodate BJP leaders, including those who had been ministers in the past, as well as Scindia’s supporters, who will soon face by-elections.