Eyeing the Lok Sabha elections, the Chief Minister Kamal Nath decided the ministerial colleagues keeping in view the Parliamentary constituencies.
Factually, the Chief Minister selected 28 faces from Congress’ stronghold constituencies out of 29 Lok Sabha seats.
Talking about caste equations managed by the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, anti-quota stir that rattled the state early this year has left a clear impression on the cabinet with upper caste and OBC combine that led the protests has pocketed maximum eight ministerial berths.
Upset with Centre’s move of restoring original provisions of SC/ ST Act and then CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s statement- Koi Mai Ka Lal Reservation Khatam Nahin Kar Sakta (Nobody can abolish reservation), upper caste and OBCs had came together under the banner of Samanya Pichhra Alpsankhyak Kalyan Samaj and has mobilized commoners against the state government which saw sizable impact in assembly polls in MP especially in Gwalior-Chambal region.
It was clear with the verdict that the upper caste votes did not go with the BJP and in the Lok Sabha elections too, the Congress is eyeing such upper caste votes. Another stakeholder in the quota issue, the SC community, has been assigned half a dozen ministerial berths while MP being a tribal-dominated state has offered five berths to tribal MLAs. Wooing its traditional minority vote bank, , six-time MLA and a leading Muslim face in MP politics Arif Aqueel has been made a minister with cabinet rank. Electoral constraints seemed visible in the cabinet as only two women ministers –Vijaylaxmi Sadho and Imarti Devi were inducted in the Kamal Nath cabinet.