Thaindian News

Bhopal, Dec 10 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is set to be sworn-in for his second term Friday and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources said Wednesday that he had got a free hand to choose his cabinet colleagues. Chouhan’s cabinet, the sources said, would include eight Brahmins, eight backward caste candidates, five tribals, three Dalits, Two Thakurs and at least four from the minority community, including one each from Jain, Sindhi, Jat and Maratha communities, besides four women.

Among those likely to get cabinet berths are Babulal Gaur, Kailash Vijaywargiya, Ajay Vishnoi, Sartaj Singh, Ishwar Das Rohani, Anup Mishra, Narotam Mishra, Laxmikant Sharma, Jayant Malaviya, Nagendra Singh, Girish Gautam, Jagdish Deora, Uma Shankar Gupta, Gauri Shankar Bisen, Kamal Patel, Moti Kashyap, Vijay Shah, Antar Singh Arya, Deepak Joshi and Paras Jain.

Among the women aspirants likely to get cabinet posts are Archana Chitnis, Neeta Pateria, Ranjana Baghel and Meena Singh.

The BJP has bagged 143 of the 230 assembly seats in the elections held Nov 27. Chouhan and other ministers will be sworn-in Friday at the Jamboori Maidan in the BHEL area here. Many of the newly-elected legislators have arrived in the state capital for the oath-taking ceremony.

Former BJP president and Madhya Pradesh election in-charge M. Venkaiah Naidu and party general secretary Anant Kumar, who was in-charge of the party’s affairs in the state, have also reached Bhopal.