9 new members to be inducted to expand Chhattisgarh cabinet
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Raipur: Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai has announced that nine new ministers will join the Chhattisgarh government on Friday. The Sai-led cabinet's strength will need to reach 12.
Sai informed reporters on Thursday that nine MLAs will take the oath of office as ministers at 11:45 a.m. at the Raj Bhavan.
Brijmohan Agrawal, Ramvichar Netam, Dayaldas Baghel, Kedar Kashyap, Lakhanlal Dewangan, Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, OP Choudhary, Tank Ram Verma and Laxmi Rajwade will take oath as ministers, he added. Very soon portfolios will be allotted. One more cabinet berth will be filled later, CM Sai told reporters.
Chhattisgarh can have a maximum of 13 ministers, including the CM. Currently, the cabinet has three members chief minister Sai and deputy CMs Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma. They were sworn in on December 13.
After the expansion of the cabinet, it will have six members belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), namely Arun Sao, Lakhanlal Dewangan, Shyam Bihari Jaiswal, OP Choudhary, Tank Ram Verma and Laxmi Rajwade. CM Vishnu Deo Sai, Ramvichar Netam and Kedar Kashyap are from the Scheduled Tribes, Dayaldas Baghel is from the Scheduled Caste category, while Vijay Sharma and Brijmohan Agrawal are from the general category. Rajwade will be the only woman member in the cabinet.
Agrawal, Netam, Kashyap and Baghel have served as ministers in previous BJP governments in the state, while CM Sai has been a Union minister during the first term of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. Sao, Sharma, IAS-turned-politician Choudhary, Verma and Rajwade are first-time MLAs.
Jaiswal and Dewangan have become MLAs for the second time. After Friday’s expansion, the cabinet will have four members from the Surguja division, three from the Bilaspur division, two each from Raipur and Durg divisions and one from the Bastar division.
The BJP came back to power in the state by ousting the Congress in the Assembly polls held on November 7 and 17. Results were declared on December 3. The BJP won 54 seats in the 90-member Assembly, while the Congress emerged victorious on 35 seats, down from the 68 it won in the 2018 edition.
With PTI inputs
