Bhopal, Dec 31 (IANS): Suspense over portfolio allocation to the council of ministers in Madhya Pradesh finally came to an end with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav returning to Bhopal after meeting with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President J. P. Nadda on Saturday.
Chief Minister Yadav will be heading the Home, General Administration Department (GAD), Jan Sampark and some other departments, which were not allocated to any minister.
Jagdish Devda -- one of the two Deputy Chief Ministers, who was finance minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government (2020-2023), will continue to as head the Finance Department while Rajendra Shukla, who is another Deputy Chief Minister, will be heading the state’s health and medical education departments.
Former BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who has returned to the state’s politics after a gap of one decade and won the Assembly election from Indore-1 seat, has been allocated state’s Urban and Law department. He has also been made the Minister of House.
Former Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, who won Assembly election from Narsinghpur seat, has been allocated Panchayat and Gramin Departments, while former state BJP President Rakesh Singh will head the Public Works Department (PWD).
Vijay Shah, who was the Forest Minister in Chouhan’s cabinet, has been given the Cooperative Department.
Similarly, Andal Singh Kasana will be the Agriculture Minister in the Mohan Yadav cabinet. Former Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel has lost this election.
Other ministers who have been allocated portfolio include Praduman Singh Tomar (School Education), Tulsi Silawat( Jal Sansadhan), Govind Singh Rajput (PHE), Vishwas Sarang (Forest and Transport department), Inder Singh Parmar (Technical Education), Uday Pratp Singh (Higher Education).
Similarly, Karan Singh Verma has been allocated Revenue, Narayan Singh Kushwaha (Horticulture), Sampatiya Uikey (Tribal Department), Nirmala Bhuria (Women and Child Development), and Rakesh Shukla has been allocated IT and Religion.
State ministers such as Krishna Gaur has been allocated Tourism and Bhopal Gas, Dharmendra Lodhi (Labour), Dilip Jaiswal (Food and Civil Supply), Gautam Tetwal (Energy), Lakhan Patel (Fisheries), and Narayan Pawar (General Administration).
Beside two deputies -- Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda, 28 BJP legislators were sworn in as ministers in Chief Miinster Mohan Yadav's cabinet on December 25. With this, the total cabinet strength, including Chief Minster, in Madhya Pradesh is 31, while it can accomodate a total 33 ministers.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that the ministers, including two Deputy Chief Minsters, have been allocated portfolio and they will work hard to take Madhya Pradesh to a new height in the next five years.