Central BJP settles in new MP CM, bustle to start after portfolio allocation to ministers

Bhopal: It’s been almost half-a-month since Chief Minister Mohan Yadav along with his two Cabinet colleagues and deputies – Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda took oath after the BJP registered a landslide victory in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections held on November 17.

Having been promoted as the head of the Council of Ministers from among several of his senior party colleagues, Mohan Yadav apparently took forward his regime, testing everything that came his way.

As of now, he is totally reliant on the party's central leadership and is just following directions received from New Delhi.

After taking oath as Chief Minister, Yadav made frequent visits to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah and the BJP’s National President JP Nadda.

With the Cabinet expansion being done on December 25, governance of the state will resume gradually once the portfolios are allocated to the Ministers. Until then, Yadav is making all efforts to get everything streamlined for the smooth running of the administration.

Some top bureaucrats have been reshuffled and Yadav has met every senior politician of his party, even those who lost the election.

Well-aware of the fact that his governance would be compared with that of his predecessor Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who headed the state for over 16 years, Yadav is trying to win the confidence of his party colleagues.

However, not much is happening in state politics right now and all key decisions are being taking by the BJP’s central leadership. The bustle in Madhya Pradesh’s politics is likely to begin after the portfolio allocation.

The race for acquiring top ministries like home and urban development has already begun among the heavyweight leaders in the state.

Madhya Pradesh’s new Cabinet is a combination of young and senior leaders. Of them 17 are first-timers, including stalwarts like the BJP’s National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, ex-Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and former state President Rakesh Singh.

Significantly, out of 31, only nine Ministers from former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Cabinet have been retained, including the Chief Minister and his two deputies Shukla and Devda.

Apart from the combination of new and old leaders, the BJP has tried to balance castes and regions in its Cabinet selection.

Notably, to make it easier for Yadav to gain control, the BJP’s top leadership has clipped Chouhan’s wings and very few of his loyalists have been inducted into the Cabinet.

Some former Ministers who had strong influence in the state’s politics, like Gopal Bhargava, Bhupendra Singh, Jayant Malaiya and some others, have been dropped.

The new CM, whose political journey began with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has the backing of Modi and Shah. However, it remains to be seen if he can dominate his Cabinet colleagues, especially the senior-most and influential leaders and how governance takes place in the future.