Madhya Pradesh was richly rewarded in Narendra Modi Cabinet that took oath of office and secrecy at an impressive ceremony in New Delhi on Monday.
However, the induction of Sushma Swaraj, Thavarchand Gehlot, Najma Heptullah and Narendra Singh Tomar is set to pose problems for State politics. It is an open secret that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had teamed up well with Tomar who was the president of State party unit, but now a new MP BJP chief needs to be appointed.
The induction of former leader of the Opposition in the lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj was confirmed soon after the saffron party had the majority in the elections. However, the most uncertain name was of Narendra Singh Tomar, as after inducting Tomar in the Union Cabinet, the party has a hectic task of searching for a new president of the State's BJP unit.
Moreover, the chemistry between Tomar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would see a change in the coming days. In the past two Assembly elections, the pair of Tomar-Shivraj had played an important role in forming the Government in Madhya Pradesh. The saffron party's victory on 27 seats in the lok Sabha elections was also credited to this pair.
Party sources said that party president Rajnath Singh had proposed the name of Tomar and it was backed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, considering that Tomar, being close to Shivraj would strongly back the proposals related to Madhya Pradesh.
However, in the present situation, political observers feel that after Tomar's induction in the Union Cabinet, Shivraj would certainly face problem in coordinating with a new president in Madhya Pradesh.
The other two members who were taken in the Union Cabinet are from the Upper House. The entry of Najma Heptullah in the Union cabinet was important as she belongs to the minority community. Since none of the Muslim candidates could win from the BJP or the NDA, Najma was inducted in the Cabinet.
Similarly, Thavarchand Gehlot was inducted in the Cabinet on being a senior Dalit leader. He is at present a Rajya Sabha member. In the last elections in 2009, he was defeated by Congress nominee Sajjan Singh Verma and in the present polls, he was denied party ticket.
Another senior leader from Madhya Pradesh, Faggan Singh Kulaste, could not be included, as there have been several tribal leaders in the queue and he belonged to senior party leader lK Advani's camp.