On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took steps to maintain a 'caste balance' in the newly formed Madhya Pradesh Cabinet led by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. In an attempt to address representation across communities, the party inducted 11 members from the Other Backward Class (OBC), 6 from the Scheduled Caste, and 4 from the Schedule Tribe.
A total of 28 MLAs were sworn in as ministers in a ceremony conducted by Governor Mangubhai Patel at Raj Bhavan. Analysts suggest that the BJP's central leadership carefully curated the new Cabinet with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
The OBCs, constituting over 50% of the state's vote bank, have a significant presence, with 11 ministers belonging to this community. Additionally, seven ministers are from the general category, six from the Scheduled Caste, and four from the Schedule Tribe.
Among the 28 ministers, six are first-time winners of assembly elections, including former Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and former Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh. Patel, who won from Narsinghpur seat, had been a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Union cabinet but resigned after winning the assembly election.
The new cabinet also includes seven ministers retained from the former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led cabinet, namely Kunwar Vijay Shah, Tulsi Ram Silawat, Aidal Singh Kansana, Govind Singh Rajput, Vishwas Sarang, Pradhuman Singh Tomar, and Inder Singh Parmar.
In the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election 2023, the BJP secured victory by winning 163 out of the total 230 seats, while the Congress won 66. The single-phase assembly election took place on November 17, with results announced on December 3.
(With Agency Inputs)
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