Bhopal, Dec 25 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday attempted to maintain the 'caste balance' by inducting 11 OBC, 6 Scheduled Caste and 4 Schedule Tribe members in the new Madhya Pradesh Cabinet led by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
A total of 28 MLAs took oath as ministers. The swearing in ceremony was conducted by Governor Mangubhai Patel at Raj Bhavan.
According to political analysts, the BJP's central leadership has formed the new Cabinet keeping the upcoming Lok Sabha election in mind.
Eleven of 28 ministers belong to the Other Backward Class (OBCs) – a community that comprises over 50 per cent of the vote bank in the state.
Seven ministers belong to the general category, six from the Scheduled Caste and four from the ST.
Of the 28 ministers, at least six are first-time assembly election winners, including former Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and former Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh.
Patel, who won the assembly election from Narsinghpur seat, was a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet.
He resigned from the Union Cabinet after winning the assembly election.
The BJP has also retained seven ministers of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led cabinet.
They are -- Kunwar Vijay Shah, Tulsi Ram Silawat, Aidal Singh Kansana, Govind Singh Rajput, Vishwas Sarang, Pradhuman Singh Tomar and Inder Singh Parmar.
The BJP won the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election 2023 by bagging 163 of the total 230 seats, while the Congress won 66.
The assembly election in Madhya Pradesh was held in a single phase on November 17 and the results were announced on December 3.
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