In the expansion of his Ministry on Saturday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed confidence in 12 old faces that were ministers till the Assembly elections were held on November 25.
The 12 old faces who have been re-inducted in the Cabinet are Babulal Gaur, Jayant Malaiya, Gopal Bhargava, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Sartaj Singh, Narottam Mishra, Kunwar Vijay Shah, Gaurishankar Bisen, Uma Shankar Gupta, Paras Chandra Jain, Rajendra Shukla and Antar Singh Arya. Apart from Maya Singh and Bhupendra Singh, the only other new face in the Council of Ministers is Gyan Singh, as Cabinet Ministers and the new faces in the Ministers of State are Surendra Patwa, Deepak Joshi, Sharad Jainand lal Singh Arya.
Similarly, four new faces who were ministers before 2008 Assembly elections and inducted in the State Cabinet are — Gauri Shankar Shejwar, Kusum Mehdele, Rampal Singh and Yashodhara Raje Scindia. The Cabinet Ministers who were sworn in on Saturday include three women — Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Maya Singh and Kusum Mehdele. Mehdele was a Minister till 2008. She lost the 2008 Assembly election by a margin of 47 votes, but this time she was elected — her fifth victory.
Similarly, Scindia has been a minister earlier and later got fielded in parliamentary elections. Scindia is currently an MP from Gwalior. Another lok Sabha member in the Cabinet is Bhupendra Singh (Sagar MP), while Maya Singh is currently a Rajya Sabha member. Archana Chitnis and Ranjana Baghel, the two women Ministers in the previous Ministry have been dropped.
Relatives of two former Chief Ministers - Deepak Joshi, the son of former Chief Minister Kailash Joshi and Surendra Patwa, nephew of former Chief Minister Sunderlal Patwa - have been inducted as Ministers of State. Joshi was elected to the Assembly for the third time from Haatpipaliya, while Surendra Patwa defeated senior Congress leader Suresh Pachouri from Bhojpur. The other two Ministers of State are lal Singh Arya and Sharad Jain. Among the Cabinet Ministers, who took the oath on Saturday, is former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, who won from the Govindpura constituency in Bhopal for a record successive 10th time.