Babulal Gaur, several Uma supporters in MP Cabinet

Five days after he was sworn in, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan inducted former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur and several supporters of suspended BJP leader Uma Bharati into his ministry. As many as 29 ministers were sworn in today.

While Gaur’s induction was always on the cards, inclusion of Uma supporters has come as a surprise. Though as many as 10 ministers of Gaur’s cabinet have been dropped—some of them for siding openly with Bharati—six MLAs considered her sympathisers are in the ministry. Anup Mishra, nephew of Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Gopal Bhargava had openly sided with the her but left her camp at the fag end of her rebellion.

Moti Kashyap, Paras Jain and Meena Singh are also considered close to Bharati and there was a question mark over their inclusion. Those dropped are Gaurishankar Shejwar, Dhal Singh Bisen, Omprakash Dhurve, Archana Chitnis, Karan Singh Varma, Rajendra Shukla, Lavkesh Singh and Badrilal Yadav.

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Former Transport Minister Umashankar Gupta and former commerce minister Kailash Chavala were the only ministers considered loyal to Gaur. Both have been removed.

Portfolios will be allocated shortly. There are five vacancies in the cabinet.