Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday expanded his Cabinet for the first time by inducting five Ministers, two of them Congress rebels who joined the BJP, nearly a month after taking charge.
The new Ministers, three of them sitting MLAs and two former legislators, were sworn-in by Governor Lalji Tandon at a low-key ceremony at the Raj Bhawan in Bhopal.
Among the new entrants are former Congress MLAs Tulsi Silawat and Govind Singh Rajput — supporters of former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who along with 22 MLAs quit the Congress last month to join the BJP.
The other Ministers who took oath are Narottam Mishra, Meena Singh and Kamal Patel, all sitting BJP MLAs.
Mr. Chouhan, who took charge on March 23 and was functioning as a one-man Cabinet since then, has sought to strike caste and regional balance.
The five Ministers hail from the Gwalior-Chambal, Bundelkand, Malwa, Vindh and Central MP regions.
According to sources, Mr. Scindia pushed for induction of most of his loyalists in the Cabinet, but the BJP central leadership agreed to reward only two with ministerial berths for the time being.
Six of Mr. Scindia supporters, including Mr. Silawat and Mr. Rajput, were members of the Nath Cabinet also.
The three senior BJP leaders inducted as Ministers had been members of the previous BJP governments as well.
