The long-awaited Cabinet expansion was formalised finally on Thursday with Vikasnagar MlA Navprabhat and Badrinath MlA Rajendra Singh Bhandari—both ex-Cabinet Ministers—being administered the oath of office by Governor KK Paul in the State Capital. Chief Minister Harish Rawat was present at Rajbhawan during the swearing-in.
After a long spell of dithering, Chief Minister Harish Rawat finally decided to take the two MlAs in his Cabinet. The expansion was due following the death of the Minister Surendra Rakesh last year. Besides, the resignation of Harak Singh Rawat resulted in another vacancy.
Interestingly, Harish Rawat had maintained a studied silence over the matter during his Press conference held on Wednesday. The hush-hush till a day preceding the swearing-in raised curiosity in the political circles.
“The message is clear. By inducting two in the ministry from within the Congress, CM has brought home the point amidst dissidence still simmering in the ruling party that those who stay put in the party have chances to be rewarded,” said an observer.
Things were, however, imminent with the two newly appointed Ministers being widely supposed as competent trouble-shooters for the party.
When the Harish Rawat Government remained embroiled in turmoil for around two months since March 18, culminating in the proclamation of President’s Rule on March 27, MlA Navprabhat played a crucial role in wriggling out the embattled Harish Rawat out of the crisis, holding Press
conferences and invoking the constitution to defend the CM and the Speaker remaining in the eye of the storm.
Recently, during the two-day special session of the Assembly, Navprabhat played another critical role when he on being appointed as the pro-tem Speaker had manipulated things to have the Opposition-moved no-confidence resolution against the Speaker quashed. Navprabhat was a cabinet minister when ND Tiwari was heading the State Government. The berth eluded him as the CMs had to fine tune things to keep balance between the mounting regional aspirations
The role of Bhandari was no less important during the crisis that afflicted the CM. He was deemed to be intimate to the veteran BJP leader Satpal Maharaj who was earlier in the Congress. Maharaj tried every trick in the trade to rope in the MlA from Badrinath when Congress was staring at the possibility of more MlAs jumping into the Vijay Bahuguna bandwagon.
His getting into the cabinet was certain, given the fact that he was a cabinet minister when he was a mere independent MlA elected during theAssembly election-2007. later, he joined the Congress at the behest of his mentor Satpal Maharaj before the Assembly election-2012. He won the election-2012 on a Congress ticket.
However, the Cabinet berth remained elusive for him in Vijay Bahuguna regime. He was supposed to be in a sulk mode with PDF dominating the ministry, while holding a great number of portfolios at the expense of the aspirants from the Congress.