Archana Chitnis, Rustam Singh, Jaibhaan Pavaiya, Omprakash Dhurvey- cabinet min.
BHOPAL : Home minister Babulal Gaur and minister for public works Sartaj Singh were dropped from the cabinet on Tuesday as they were considered too old to hold office. Their resignations were forwarded by the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to governor Ramnaresh Yadav, who accepted them.
With removing Gaur and Sartaj, nine new ministers were inducted into the ministry. Archana Chitnis, Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya, Rustam Singh and Omprakash Dhurvey will be cabinet ministers while Vishwas Sarang, Harsh Singh, Suryaprakash Meena, Sanjay Pathak and Lalita Yadav will be ministers of state (MoS).
The drama over cabinet expansion began from Thursday morning.
Earlier, Chouhan had asked Gaur and Sartaj to resign. But they refused point blank. State in-charge Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and BJP state president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan also reached their places and asked them to quit but they refused to budge.
Vishwas Sarang, Harsh Singh, Sanjay Pathak, Lalita Yadav, Suryaprakash Meena-MoS |
Then BJP national general secretary Ramlal telephoned Gaur and Sartaj to resign. Rampal told them that if they don’t resign then it would be considered an act of indiscipline. BJP senior leader Krishnamurari Moghe was also roped in to persuade them to quit. Gaur and Sartaj sent in their resignation letters to Chouhan when Ramlal threatened them that if they do not resign, they would be sacked.
Babulal Gaur said he has resigned at the behest of the BJP high command. He said he rose from being a worker to chief minister due to the party and that is why, he did what he was asked to by the party. Gaur said he has no complaints against anyone. Earlier, Gaur had sought to know what mistake he had committed to deserve the sacking.
There was flutter in the Raj Bhawan when Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya flew off the handle after he discovered that he was being appointed minister of state. He came out of the venue and told chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan without mincing words that he would not take oath as an MoS. He cooled down only when his name was included in the list of cabinet ministers.
Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Narottam Mishra were against making Pavaiya a minister and under their pressure, Chouhan decided to make him an MoS. Chouhan changed his decision when he saw that Pavaiya would not settle for anything less than cabinet rank.
The national general secretary of BJP Kailash Vijayvergiya came in the way of MLA Sudarshan Gupta’s induction into the ministry. Gupta was all set to take oath on Thursday. According to sources Vijayvergiya did not want Gupta, elected from Indore-1 constituency, to become a minister. Both the leaders hail from the Malwa region. In 2008 Vijayvigriya was elected from Indore-2 constituency. In 2013, he was forced to shift to Mhow. Sources claimed that the national BJP president Amit Shah was persuaded by Vijayvargiya to phone the chief minister Shivraj Singh to drop the name of the MLA from the list of would-be ministers. Confident that he was being inducted into the ministry, Gupta had made elaborate arrangements at his Professor’s colony residence for his supporters. Tents were erected and cooks from Indore started churning out sweets from early morning. However, when the news came that his name had been dropped, a hush descended on his house. While talking to Free Press the MLA said, “Only CM knows why my name was dropped”. The MLA was seen happily chatting with the people present at his residence.
Sartaj Singh claimed that he has done more work than other ministers. He said ‘Meri Gaadi Anya Mantriyon Se Jyada Chali Hai’ (I have put in more toil and effort in his working). He maintains that despite good performance of his department, he was asked to resign. Singh said party high command should have also heard their viewpoint before issuing instructions. He said he never expected that years of hard work will fetch such a result.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that the performance of cabinet ministers will be assessed every three months. He said ministers would continue in office only if they perform. The chief minister said that four more persons can be inducted into the council of ministers. He confirmed that ministers Babulal Gaur and Sartaj Singh have resigned and that their resignations have been accepted. He also said that portfolios would be re-distributed and a formal allotment would be done in a day or two.
