BHOPAL: The hero of Operation Lotus, who toppled the Congress government and brought the BJP back to power in the state, was away from ministry formation.
The leader, angry with the party for not inducting him into the cabinet, boycotted the function.
The BJP is saying that some of its leaders did not take part in the swearing-in ceremony because of the covid-19 pandemic. Yet, many of them kept away from the function for not getting berths.
One of the important leaders of Operation Lotus Sanjay Pathak was present at the function.
Bhupendra Singh, Arvind Bhadauria and Rampal Singh were away from the ceremony.
All of them were keen to become ministers, but now,they have to wait for the cabinet expansion.
Former ministers Rajendra Shukla and Vishwash Sarang were absent from the function, though they were in Bhopal.
Former leader of opposition Gopal Bhargava was in his native village Gadhkota. When Bhupendra Singh came to know that he would not be included in the cabinet, he left for Sagar on Monday evening.
Many legislators were trying to become ministers by talking to senior leaders in Bhopal and in Delhi on phones.
Some of the legislators also put up their problems before Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state party president VD Sharma and organisational general secretary Suhas Bhagat. But they pacified the legislators.
Some of the legislators were assured that they would be inducted into the cabinet during its expansion.
Sworn-in without masks
The swearing-in ceremony may have been simple due to the covid-19 pandemic, but the all the ministers took oath without masks. The impact of the coronavirus was seen in the function. Besides former chief minister Uma Bharati and a few BJP leaders, most of the ruling party leaders were absent.
All these leaders were sitting in the audience maintaining one-metre distance from one another. The ministers did not shake hands with one another after the ceremony.
Even after the function, the leaders maintained proper distance from one another to maintain anti-corona norms.
