Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jyotiraditya Scindia at a BJP event this month.
Bhopal:
Nine days after joining the Madhya Pradesh cabinet, 28 ministers, including a significant number of former congressional leaders, will finally receive their portfolios on Sunday.
The delay in the allocation of ministries sparked speculation over a conflict within the ruling BJP over the loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose exit from Congress with 22 deputies led to the collapse of the government led by Kamal Nath in March of this year, in the firm.
“I will do it tomorrow (Sunday),” Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters in Gwalior when asked about the delay in allocating portfolios.
After expanding his cabinet for the second time on July 2, Mr. Chouhan met with senior BJP leaders in New Delhi, apparently to discuss portfolio allocation, which became a political tightrope in the presence of a Jyotiraditya Scindia asserted.
The 28 ministers include at least a dozen followers of Mr. Scindia. Their enthronement in the cabinet would have left several ministerial aspirants to the state BJP unhappy. Sources say the chief minister was forced to withdraw from many of the candidates he had proposed for leadership.
The cabinet’s expansion had been due since March, when Congress lost power to the BJP after the rebels left with Mr. Scindia, formerly close collaborator of Rahul Gandhi.
The government has been operating with five ministers since mid-April. Even they were inducted almost a month after Mr. Chouhan was sworn in in March as chief minister for the record-breaking fourth term.
The delay was officially attributed to the blockage of the coronavirus and the election of Rajya Sabha. Behind the scenes, however, there were raging disagreements over the division of ministries between the BJP and former members of Congress who expected to be rewarded for overthrowing the Congressional government led by Kamal Nath.
Digging at the BJP, congress veteran Digvijay Singh tweeted on Saturday: “8 days of cabinet expansion completed in Madhya Pradesh. CM training on department allocation does not seem to be over. Is Tiger become toothless? Let’s see who flees his territory! “.
Speaking after the cabinet expansion on Thursday, Scindia said he wanted to tell congressional leaders that “Tiger abhi zinda hai (Tiger is still alive). “
(With PTI entries)
