The cabinet reshuffle takes place just a few months before the anticipated Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, which are expected to be held towards the year's end.
Bhopal: In an upcoming development, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is scheduled to expand his cabinet on Saturday morning. This expansion will see the addition of three to four new ministers, a strategic move as the Assembly polls approach later this year.
The swearing-in ceremony is set to commence at 8:45 am, as confirmed by a Raj Bhavan official in a statement on Friday night.
Sources within the BJP have indicated that the names of former ministers Rajendra Shukla and Gaurishankar Bisen are on the verge of being confirmed for cabinet induction. Rajendra Shukla, a prominent Brahmin leader and MLA from Rewa in the Vindh region, along with Gaurishankar Bisen, a legislator from Balaghat in the Mahakoshal region and chairman of the MP Backward Class Commission, are among the prime contenders for the cabinet positions.
At present, the Madhya Pradesh cabinet comprises 33 ministers, inclusive of the chief minister. The cabinet’s upper limit is 36 members. With the addition of three to four new ministers, the cabinet’s strength will scale up to either 36 or 37 members.
The party is also looking to beat anti-incumbency by inducting new faces into the cabinet.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan took over as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in March 2020 following a revolt by legislators loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, a development that led to the fall of the Congress government led by Kamal Nath.
The Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections are slated for December 2023. With the BJP currently in power, the party is aspiring to maintain its dominance in the state’s political landscape
