Eye on poll, 3 new faces in Shivraj Singh Chouhan team

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday expanded his ministry by inducting three new faces ahead of Assembly elections slated later this year.

The new ministers — Narayan Singh Kushwaha, Jalam Patel and Balakrishna Patidar — represented the dominant Kushwaha, Patel and Patidar communities, considered traditional vote bank of the BJP. Four of six farmers killed in police firing in Mandsaur in MP in June this year belonged to Patidar community.

The newly-inducted ministers represented three regions of Gwalior-Chambal, Nimar and Maha Koshal of MP.

Incidentally, Mr Patel is younger brother of BJP MP and former Union minister Prahlad Patel who is considered bitter critic of chief minister Mr Chouhan.

Sources in chief minister’s office (CMO) told this newspaper that there was a move to induct either Ramesh Mandola or Sudarshan Gupta, both hailing from Indore district, in the ministry in the Saturday’s expansion. However, a reported tussle between Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, both from Indore district, had stalled the move.

The chief minister however dropped hints that he might go for another minor expansion of his ministry shortly.