Keeping to the speculations, five among the nine ministers inducted in the cabinet of Vishnu Deo Sai-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh are new faces.
The ministers who took oath at a ceremony in Raipur on Friday include former ministers Brijmohan Agrawal, Kedar Kashyap, Ramvichar Netam, Dayaldas Baghel and the new faces Lakhanlal Dewangan, Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, O.P. Chaudhary, Laxmi Rajwade and Tank Ram Verma.
Of these, bureaucrat-turned-politician Chaudhary, Rajwade and Verma are first-time MLAs while Dewangan and Jaiswal have won for the second time. The 31-year-old Rajwade, MLA of Bhatgaon in Raipur district, is the only female face in the cabinet and the youngest minister to be inducted.
Because Sai himself has been elected to the Chhattisgarh assembly for the first time (he has been MLA in undivided Madhya Pradesh before moving to union cabinet roles) and both deputy chief ministers Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma are also first-time MLAs and first-time entrants in the cabinet, only four of the 12-member cabinet have been ministers in the earlier Raman Singh-led BJP governments in the state.
Big names like former leader of opposition Dharamlal Kaushik and powerful ministers like Rajesh Munat, Amar Agarawal and Ajay Chandrakar, former union minister Renuka Singh and Satnami community leader Guru Khushwant Saheb have not been included in the cabinet, though there is still a vacant slot available.
The Chhattisgarh cabinet can have a maximum 13 members inclusive of the chief minister.
By the choice of Sai, Sao and Sharma for the top posts in the state after a record win of the party, the BJP central leadership had indicated that the cabinet was likely to have a new composition.
The new cabinet has taken care of regional and caste balances. Among new ministers, Agrawal represents Raipur South, Kashyap – Narayanpur in Bastar, Netam – Ramanujganj in Surguja, Baghel – Durg, Tank Ram Verma – Baloda Bazar in Raipur, Chaudhary – Raigarh, Dewangan – Katghora in Korba, Jaiswal – Manendragarh in Korba and Rajwade – Bhatgaon in Raipur.
Therefore, the cabinet now has four members from the Surguja division, three from the Bilaspur division; two each from Raipur and Durg divisions and one from the Bastar division.
On Thursday, first-time MLA from Jagdalpur in Bastar, Kiran Singh Deo was made the state BJP chief, thus further balancing out the regional representations. Also now, inclusive of the CM and deputies, six of the cabinet members are from the OBC category, three from the scheduled tribe; one from the scheduled caste while two ministers are from the general category.
