madhya pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on saturday expanded his cabinet by inducting three bharatiya janata party (BJP) MLAs as ministers, months ahead of the year-end state assembly elections. With the expansion of the cabinet, the bjp has tried to address the caste and regional equation in Madhya Pradesh
ahead of the elections to be held in less than three months. governor Mangubhai patel administered the oath of
office to three MLAs at raj Bhawan here at around 9 am.
Former minister, Brahmin leader and four-time mla from Rewa in Vindhya region Rajendra Shukla, seven-
time mla from Balaghat in Mahakaushal region and chairman of madhya pradesh Backward Classes
Commission Gaurishankar Bisen and mla from Khargapur in Tikamgarh district of Bundelkhand region Rahul
Lodhi Took oath as minister. Lodhi has become mla for the first time. On the question of cabinet expansion
about 75 days before the assembly elections, the chief minister told reporters on the sidelines of another
program after the swearing-in ceremony that the bjp government is going to be formed in the state even after the
upcoming assembly elections.
Number of ministers of Bundelkhand increased to five
With this, there are now a total of 34 members in the cabinet headed by cm Shivraj. According to the
constitutional provisions, this number can go up to 35. Shukla (59) and Bisen (71) took oath as cabinet ministers,
while Lodhi (46) took oath as minister of state, a raj bhavan official said. However, the department has not been
allotted to all three yet.
Lodhi is the nephew of senior bjp leader Uma Bharti. Bisen and Lodhi, on the other hand, belong to the Other
Backward Classes (OBC) community, which accounts for more than 45 per cent of Madhya Pradesh's
population. With the joining of Shukla, the number of ministers from Vindhya region in the cabinet will go up to
four, while with the arrival of Bisen, the number of ministers from Mahakaushal region will go up to two and
with the addition of Lodhi, the number of ministers from Bundelkhand will go up to five.
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