2 Ex-Chief Ministers Rewarded: SS Chouhan Gets Agriculture, ML Khattar Power

As the Modi 3.0 government revealed portfolio allocations - a hotly-contested and closely-watched exercise given expectations from the BJP's allies - there was good news for two veterans from the saffron party. Ex-Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar, 70, and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Chouhan, 65, found space in the cabinet.

Mr Khattar, who won the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, has been given dual charge of the high-profile Power and Housing ministries. Mr Chouhan, who returned to claim the Vidisha seat he held for five consecutive elections between 1991 and 2004, is the Agriculture Minister.

The allocations have been seen as rewards for the two senior leaders after being stood down from the chief minister's post in their respective states. 

Mr Khattar had been Chief Minister of Haryana for a decade till the BJP's surprise reshuffle of its state administration, a measure prompted by concerns over anti-incumbency ahead of an Assembly election later this year.

The BJP has, in the past, changed out chief ministers and rearranged cabinets before state elections for that reason. That was the tactic before polls in Gujarat and Uttarakhand, which the party won, and in Karnataka, which it lost.

The changing of the Haryana Chief Minister - now Nayab Singh Saini - was also linked to failed seat-sharing talks with state allies JJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election. 

Meanwhile, Mr Chouhan has been seen as getting his dues after stepping down from the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister's post after last year's election win. The former four-time Chief Minister engineered the BJP's big win thanks largely to his women-centric campaign.

However, the party opted to install the unknown Mohan Yadav in his post instead, with a wary eye on caste equations ahead of the Lok Sabha election. 

The BJP swept the state for a second consecutive year.

READ | Modi 3.0: Major Ministries Unchanged, Boost For Allies, Regional Balance

The raft of cabinet announcements made Monday included some surprises and some big names retaining their posts. Chief among the latter were the Big 4 - the Home, Defence, Finance, and External Affair. Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, and S Jaishankar have retained these positions.

Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari retains his Road Transport and Highways post, and Ashwini Vaishnaw has retained his Railways portfolio with Information and Broadcasting added. 

READ | Ex-Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan Is Agriculture Minister

New faces include ex-Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been rewarded for orchestrating his party's thumping Assembly win last year by being made Agriculture Minister.

READ | BJP Chief JP Nadda Returns As Health Minister In Modi 3.0 Cabinet

Another ex-Chief Minister - Haryana's ML Khattar - is Power and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election the BJP won 240 seats on its own - 32 below the majority mark - but managed to form the government for a third consecutive time thanks to 53 seats from National Democratic Allies, particularly the TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU. These two contributed 16 and 12 MPs.

The JDU has got two berths, of which one - Panchayati Raj - has gone to senior leader Lalan Singh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who will take the Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy, and Space ministries - was sworn in on Sunday evening for a record third time with a cabinet of 71 ministers, including 30 of cabinet rank.

The opposition INDIA bloc - led by the Congress - won 293 seats to put up an unexpectedly close fight. There was speculation the Congress would reach out to Chandrababu Naidu, who was once a UPA member. and Nitish Kumar, who helped found the INDIA bloc, to convince them to dump the BJP and come onboard, but that has not materialised, for now.

From the southern states - regions in which the BJP usually struggled, and did so again, with zero seats in Tamil Nadu and a drop of 11 in Karnataka. From the latter state, though, Janata Dal (Secular) boss HD Kumaraswamay has been given Heavy Industries and Steel.

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