Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on December 29 met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president J.P. Nadda in New Delhi, even as the Congress accused Mr. Yadav of getting the approval of portfolio distribution for the new ministers from the BJP’s central leadership.
Mr. Yadav, who left for the national capital on December 28 night, called on Mr. Shah and Mr. Nadda on December 29 evening and also met Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
“Today in New Delhi, I had a courtesy meeting with the Honourable Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah and had a meaningful discussion on various issues related to the development and public welfare of the state,” Mr. Yadav wrote on X, sharing a picture with Mr. Shah.
In the first Cabinet expansion of Mr. Yadav-led BJP government in the State, 18 MLAs took oath as Cabinet Ministers, six as Ministers of State (Independent Charge), and four as Ministers of State on December 25, 12 days after the CM and his two deputies — Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla were sworn-in on December 13.
Hitting out at the BJP over the delay in portfolio allocation, Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly and Congress MLA Umang Singhar alleged that all major decisions of the M.P. Government are being taken from Delhi and that Mr. Yadav has gone there to collect the list of ministers’ departments.
Taking to X, Mr. Singhar said, “Everyone is drooling over the Home Department! Whereas, the CM wants a Deputy CM to get the Home Department,... Because, every minister wants a sugary department, but Dr. Mohan Yadav does not want any bigamist leader to take the Home Department and sit on his chest!”
“It should be considered as the helplessness of the Chief Minister that he has been made the king, but the command of the generals is not in his hands. This is called a dead engine!” Mr. Singhar wrote.
Meanwhile, BJP insiders attribute the delay and deliberation in the portfolio distribution to the seniority of various Cabinet Ministers as well as to the preparations of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“There are some really senior leaders who have been inducted as Ministers. We have one ex-Union Minister (Prahlad Singh Patel), two Deputy CMs, one ex-national general secretary (of the party, Kailash Vijayvargiya), and they have to be given departments as per their expertise and stature,” the leader said, speaking to The Hindu.
Claiming that the party had succeeded in balancing the caste and regional equations in the Cabinet formation, the leader said, “The central leadership is taking all decisions keeping an eye on 2024 and I believe the department allocation will also be done accordingly.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Singhar had said that the governance system in the State had come to a standstill and the public was confused about who to approach for their problems.
“The public is worried about which ministers they should approach for solving their problems? Now the public cannot go to Delhi for their work like the ministers!” he had written on X.
