A few BJP legislators together with some of the Congress MLAs who have crossed over to the ruling party have mounted pressure on the chief minister to expand ministry.
Some of the BJP legislators and a few Congress rebels from certain districts have got in the way of cabinet expansion.
Present law-makers, including the former ones from Sagar, Rewa, Dhar, Mandsaur and Indore, have become a hurdle. Govind Singh Rajput from Sagar has already been inducted into the ministry.
It is, however, not easy to do away with the names of Gopal Bhargava and Bhupendra Singh from the list of legislators who will get cabinet berths.
Besides them, BJP legislator Pradeep Laria and Shailendra Jain are also pulling strings with senior leaders of the party for cabinet berths.
Thus, it is not easy to meet the aspirations of so many legislators from Sagar.
BJP state president VD Sharma and organisation general secretary Suhas Bhagat are interacting with the party legislators.
Incharge of the state’s BJP unit Vinay Shahashrabuddhe is also talking to the legislators on phone.
Legislators are putting pressure on chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who cannot afford to annoy any of them.
Similarly, legislators from Rewa do not offer a different picture. Rajendra Shukla from Rewa was a minister in the previous government.
Other law-makers from Rewa like Girish Gautam, Kedar Shukla and Nagendra are also sparing no effort for ministerial berths.
Nevertheless, Meena Singh, who also belongs to Rewa has already been inducted into the cabinet.
A former legislator Bisahulal Singh is all set to get a berth in the cabinet.
The problem with the BJP is that it does not know how to accommodate such a large number of legislators in the ministry.
Former MLA from Dhar, Rajyawardhan Singh, is assured of a ministerial berth.
Former central minister Vikram Verma pulled out all the stops to give a ministerial berth to BJP legislator Neena Verma. Verma has also spoken to the central party leadership about it.
BJP legislators from Mandsaur have stuck to their guns. They told the party leaders that they would not tolerate if only Hardeep Singh Dang who crossed over to the party from the Congress was inducted into the ministry.
Those who are aspiring for ministerial berths from Mandsaur are Jagdish Devra, Yashpal Singh Sisodia, Rajendra Pandey and Omprakash Saklecha.
After Tulsi Silawat has been made a minister, Ramesh Mendola and Malini Gaur from Indore are also making efforts for cabinet berths.
The BJP feels the anger of the party legislators may cause rebellion in the party.
In fact, anger of the senior legislators sapped the foundation of the Congress government, so the BJP wants to avoid that.
