Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday met state Governor Mangubhai Patel at Rajbhavan in Bhopal. The meeting comes amid a strong buzz over Cabinet expansion in the state ahead of assembly elections due this year. MP Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in or before November 2023.
Chouhan may attempt to strike caste and regional balance ahead of elections, said sources. Also, MLAs from Bundelkhand, Vindhya and the Central state region may be included in the Cabinet.
Currently, the Madhya Pradesh government has 23 Cabinet ministers and 7 state ministers.
Madhya Pradesh Cabinet expanded in 2021, Scindia loyalists got berths
The last time the Chouhand Cabinet was expanded on January 2, 2021 with the induction of two loyalists of BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose exit from the Congress in March 2020. Scindia's switching sides from Congress to BJP triggered the fall of the 15-month-old Kamal Nath-led government in MP.
Meanwhile, BJP is eying winning the election to retain power. On the other hand, Kamal Nath-led Congress is expecting a repeat of the last election performance. Congress in assembly elections 2018 defeated to then ruling BJP government. However, Scindia deserted Congress which led to the collapse of Congress government in 2020.
