28 Ministers Take Oath In Madhya Pradesh, 11 From OBC Category

Former Union Minister Prahlad Patel and BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were among 28 MLAs sworn into the Madhya Pradesh cabinet Monday afternoon, 18 of whom will hold cabinet berths, news agency PTI said. The other 10 will be junior ministers, or Ministers of State.

There are only five women in new cabinet, after the BJP claimed a win largely on a women's empowerment platform and ex-Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's 'Ladli Behna Yojana' scheme.

As many as 12 members of the new cabinet are from OBC, or Other Backward Classes, category, including the new Chief Minister, underlying the BJP's ongoing efforts to balance caste/class arithmetic ahead of next year's election.

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The BJP was widely seen as doing just that in naming Mohan Yadav the Chief Minister.

Governor Mangubha C Patel administered the oath as he had to Mr Yadav and his two deputies, Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla, Scheduled Caste and Brahmin faces in the new cabinet.

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Among those sworn in today were Nirmala Bhuria, Narayan Kushwaha, and Nagar Singh Chouhan. Ms Bhuria was earlier the junior Health Minister and Mr Kushwaha the junior Home Minister.

Tribal leader Sampatiya Uikey was sworn in, as were Vijay Shah, Karan Singh Verma, Rakesh Singh, Vishvas Sarang, Rakesh Shukla, Chaitanya Kashyap, Inder Singh Parmar, and Uday Pratap Singh.

Also added were Pradhuman Singh Tomar, who was earlier the Energy Minister; Tulsi Ram Silawat, the ex-junior Water Resources Minister; Govind Singh Rajput, the former Revenue and Transport; and Aidal Singh Kansana. All four were among the 22 who supported ex-Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia when he quit the Congress in 2020, triggering the fall of Kamal Nath's government.

All those named above will hold cabinet berths..

Junior ministers (but with independent charge) are Krishna Gaur, Dharmendra Bhav Lodhi, Dilip Jaiswal, Gautam Tetwal, Lakhan Patel and Narayan Singh Pawar. And MLAs who took oath as Ministers of State are Narendra Shivaji Patel, Pratima Bagri, Dilip Ahirwar, and Radha Singh.

Those named represent a mix of the old and new, as the BJP also tries to balance the aspirations of its newer faces (particularly those who crossed over from the Congress three years ago) and the expectations of its more veteran state leaders, including those who served with Mr Chouhan.

12 from the earlier cabinet had contested and lost the election. Of those who contested and won, only six have been given ministerial berths this time around. Among those not included were Bhupendra Singh, who is close to former Shivraj Chouhan, and Gopal Bhargava, a nine-time MLA.

The maximum strength of the Council of Ministers is 35, including the Chief Minister.

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The additions to the cabinet - the first concrete steps towards establishing a state government to follow the Shivraj Singh Chouhan administration since election results were announced 22 days ago - came after Mr Yadav told NDTV "there is no hurry... it (the new cabinet) will be formed soon".

Madhya Pradesh's new ministers were chosen after extensive talks at the upper echelons of the BJP's central leadership, including party boss JP Nadda.

The BJP claimed a landslide win in last month's election - winning 163 of the Hindi heartland state's 230 seats - shrugging off most exit polls' prediction of a tight race with the Congress, which claimed just 66 seats compared to the 114 it won five years ago. The saffron party also routed its rival in two other states that voted then - Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, both of which the Congress had ruled.

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