A month on, MP expands Cabinet amid criticism over Covid-19 crisis handling

Shivraj Singh Chouhan expanded his cabinet on Tuesday, nearly a month after he sworn in as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister for a fourth term. Five ministers took oath in the afternoon in a low-key ceremony amid coronavirus-induced lockdown.
 

The expansion came amid Opposition’s criticism that Madhya Pradesh doesn’t have a health minister at a time when the state has reported 76 Covid-19 deaths.
 

The state has recorded 1,540 confirmed cases so far. Madhya Pradesh, however, is yet to get a health minister as the portfolios of the new ministers have not been announced yet. According to sources, portfolios are likely to be assigned after the second round of Cabinet expansion on May 3.

Former minister Narottam Mishra, Meena Singh, Kamal Patel, Tulsiram Silawat, and Govind Singh Rajput are now part of the cabinet. Silawat and Rajput are former MLAs and loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, who, along with 22 MLAs, quit the Congress and joined the BJP last month.

Chouhan took care of regional and cast balance while appointing ministers. The five ministers represent five different regions of Madhya Pradesh: Bundelkhand, Central Madhya Pradesh, Malwa-Nimar, Mahakoshal, and Gwalior-Chambal regions. In five ministers, two are from upper cast, one each from scheduled cast and scheduled, tribe and one from other backward class.