Though the BJP did not have a clean sweep in Madhya Pradesh, the State unit of the party is expecting two to three berths in the Union Cabinet from the State.
In the recently-held lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 27 out of the total 29 lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh.
The spectacular win of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh for the first time after the carving out of Chhattisgarh State from it has fuelled the aspirations of party leaders as well as the people, party sources said. In the last
polls, the BJP could get only 17 seats.
Among the probable candidates doing the rounds for Cabinet berths is the leader of the Opposition in the last lok Sabha and Vidisha MP, Sushma Swaraj, who tops the list. Eighth time MP from Indore, Sumitra Mahajan is also a strong contender.
State BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar’s claim is also strong as he along with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ‘gifted’ 27 seats to Modi, who during his rallies prior to the lok Sabha polls had urged the people to send the maximum lotuses from MP for a strong Central government, the sources said.
Tomar won from the prestigious Gwalior seat with a margin of nearly 30,000 votes in a keenly contested election.
The name of parliamentary board member and Rajya Sabha MP, Thavarchand Gehlot, who was deputed by the party to select a successor to Modi in Gujarat, is also doing the rounds for a Cabinet berth. Gehlot hails from Malwa-Nimad region and represented Shajapur lok Sabha seat (now Dewas) in four terms, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004, sources said.
Former Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste is also a contender. He was one of the BJP MPs who displayed wads of currency notes in connection with the cash-for-vote scam during the July 22, 2008 trust vote in the lok Sabha. This time he won the lS polls from Mandla.
The name of former Union minister Prahlad Patel, who won from Damoh lS seat, is also doing the rounds for inclusion in the Union Cabinet, the sources said.
State BJP spokesman Vijendra Singh Sisodia said though it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister, the State unit of the party is confident that under the leadership of Modi, Madhya Pradesh will get due representation and injustice being meted out to it since last ten years of the UPA rule will end soon.