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With three months to go for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan undertook an expansion of his Cabinet by inducting three new ministers on Saturday, which is seen as an exercise to balance caste and regional equations.
The three new faces in Chouhan team — Gaurishankar Bisen, Rajendra Shukla and Rahul Singh Lodhi — were sworn in as ministers in the morning, which took the strength of the BJP Cabinet to 34, even as one ministerial berth remains vacant.
This was the second Cabinet expansion during the four-time CM Chouhan’s current tenure, which came after he held protracted deliberations with the BJP top brass, which finally approved his proposed move after it emerged in multiple feedback exercises that several senior party leaders were disgruntled for not being named as ministers. Of the 31 ministers, a majority of them (11) hail from the Malwa-Nimar region, nine are from the Gwalior-Chambal region, 4 from Bundelkhand, and 3 each from central MP and Vindhyachal.
Amid a lack of representation in the Cabinet from Mahakaushal, which had only one minister, Chouhan inducted Gaurishankar Bisen as a minister, who hails from the region, which is considered to be a stronghold of the Congress party. State Congress president and ex-CM Kamal Nath’s home turf is also in the Mahakaushal region.
A 7-time legislator from Balaghat region, Bishen, 71, started his political career in 1971 as a president of the Village Welfare Committee. He would go on to serve as the director of the District Cooperative Bank and Land Development Bank in Balaghat from 1978-80. He was also the deputy president of the BJP’s Balaghat unit. He has also held positions as the BJP Kisan Morcha chief and the state Backward Classes Commission chairman in the early 2000s.
Bisen had previously served in the Chouhan Cabinet as the Public Health Engineering minister in 2008 and as the Agriculture minister in 2013.
In an attempt to placate party veteran and ex-CM Uma Bharti, Chouhan named her nephew Rahul Singh Lodhi, a first-time MLA from Kharagpur in Bundelkhand region, as a minister. The relations between Bharti and Chouhan have been strained for a long time. Belonging to the powerful Lodhi community, Rahul, 45, was previously the vice-president of the state BJP Kisan Morcha.
Releasing the report card of the 20-year BJP rule in MP last Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned Bharti’s name and acknowledged her contributions to the party. The BJP also gave ticket to her staunch supporter, Pritam Singh Lodhi, from the Pichhore Assembly seat for the upcoming polls. Pritam was earlier suspended from the BJP for six years over his alleged objectionable remarks against the Brahmin community.
“Bharti has protested against liquor stores in the state which has made the government very uneasy since the Congress leaders including Kamal Nath also routinely attack the government over this issue. Her supporters have been given due respect to stem infighting and ensure that the Lodhi community remains firmly with the BJP,” said a BJP leader.
Rajendra Shukla, 59, is a four-time legislator from the Rewa constituency in Vindhya Pradesh. As a minister in the Chouhan ministry in the past, he had held portfolios like commerce and industries, mining and employment.
A key BJP face in the Vindhya region, Shukla is credited with helping the party win all eight seats in Rewa district in the 2018 polls. His induction is aimed at wooing the Brahmin voters in the region, BJP leaders said.
