At a time, when polling for the 14th Madhya Pradesh Assembly has been completed and counting is scheduled on December 8, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan surprised everybody by convening meeting of the State Cabinet on December 5.
Official sources said that with due permission of the Election Commission of India (ECI), Chouhan has decided to convene the meeting of the State Cabinet. Intimation in this regard has been provided to the ministers by the Chief Secretary office. This will be the last cabinet of the Government elected by 13th State Assembly elections.
As per convention, cabinet meeting has never been convened in the history of Madhya Pradesh, before counting of votes. However, by changing the convention, Chouhan would chair the cabinet meeting, but instead of taking any policy decision, old decisions taken in the cabinet would be endorsed.
Political observers feel that this is an example of confidence of Shivraj that he has taken such a decision. Meanwhile, only few of the cabinet ministers have deposited their vehicles with the State garage. Those ministers who have deposited vehicles are- Tukojirao Puar, Karan Singh Verma, Antar Singh Arya, Ramdayal Ahirwar, Dashrath Singh lodhi, Jagdesh Deora, Uma Shankar Gupta, Archana Chitnis, Mahendra hardia, Ramkrishna Kusmariya and Sartaj Singh.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra, over the issue claims that there has been no convention in this regard and thus he has not deposited his vehicle with the State garage. “In the present situation, the government vehicle is being used as per rules and regulations,” he added.