Governor Shekhar Dutt administered oath of office and secrecy to nine legislators as Cabinet Ministers in Raman Singh-led BJP Government on Wednesday at the crowded Darbar Hall here at Raj Bhawan.
Raman Singh has cleverly kept three slots vacant in the council of ministers which he announced to fill up in the second phase of his cabinet expansion after the parliamentary polls which is due in May next year. Singh has retained his five ministerial colleagues of his second stint (2008-13) in the new cabinet— Brijmohan Agrawal, Amar Agrawal, Kedar Kashyap, Punnulal Mohle and Rajesh Munat. The four new faces are former assembly speaker Premprakash Pandey, former minister Ajay Chandrakar, BJP state chief Ramsevak Paikra and Ramshila Sahu.
The political analysts have described the new cabinet a perfect blend of experienced and new faces as well as in terms of two other vital criteria— caste and region— which matter a lot in politics of Chhattisgarh which has total 90 assembly and 11 lok Sabha seats.
The new cabinet has two ministers- Kedar Kashyap and Ramsevak Paikra- from Scheduled Tribe community Punnulal Mohle- from Scheduled Caste, Premprakash Pandey from Brahmin, Rajesh Munat draws from the minority Jain community while Ajay Chandrakar and Ramshila Sahu- from the powerful OBC community which makes up above 50 percent of state’s total 2.55 crore people.
Brijmohan Agrawal who has been elected for the six-consecutive term in 2013 assembly polls, is reported to be upset with low profile portfolio assigned to him though the seasoned politician has said on record Rs it’s the discretionary right of the Chief Minister to decide about portfolios’. The former Public Works Department minister Agrawal has now been handed over Agriculture along with other smaller portfolios such as fishery.
“People are known from their work and not from portfolio he and she handles,’’ visibly-tense looking Agrawal remarked when newspersons sought his views about what his supporters described ‘unfair treatment’ to him in the portfolios allocations.