Chhattisgarh cabinet to be expanded on Wednesday; three BJP MLAs likely to take oath

Raipur, Aug 19 (PTI) The much-awaited expansion of the Chhattisgarh cabinet will take place on Wednesday to fill the vacant berths, the ruling BJP said.

The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to take place at 10.30 am at the Raj Bhawan here, the BJP said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

However, the party neither disclosed the names of MLAs who are set to be inducted nor mentioned their number.

Since the formation of the state, 13 MLAs, including the chief minister, have traditionally been part of the cabinet. At present, the Chhattisgarh cabinet has 11 members, including Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai.

Sources indicated that Chhattisgarh may adopt the "Haryana model", where 14 MLAs, including the CM, serve as ministers in the 90-member assembly.

If that model is followed, three new BJP MLAs are likely to be inducted, taking the cabinet strength to the permissible constitutional limit of 14.

The Constitutional provisions allow that the size of a state's Council of Ministers, including the CM, cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the assembly. For Chhattisgarh, with 90 members, the limit comes to 13.5, which makes room for 14 cabinet members.

According to party sources, frontrunners for the new ministerial berths include Gajendra Yadav, Guru Khushwant Saheb and Rajesh Agrawal.

Yadav, an MLA from Durg, who comes from a numerically strong OBC Yadav community, has a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background.

Guru Khushwant Saheb, son of Satnami sect leader Baldas Saheb, represents Arang constituency. The Satnami sect, followed by a majority of Scheduled Caste population in the state, accounts for around 13 per cent of Chhattisgarh's population and is considered a crucial vote bank.

Agrawal, an MLA from Ambikapur, defeated senior Congress leader and then Deputy CM T S Singh Deo in the last assembly election.

The BJP won 54 seats in the 2023 assembly polls, while the Congress secured 35 and the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) one.

CM Sai, along with Deputy CMs Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma, took oath on December 13, 2023. Nine ministers were inducted later in the same month.

Brijmohan Agrawal resigned as a minister and MLA last year after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Raipur. PTI TKP NP