Cabinet expansion in Madhya Pradesh: 28 ministers take oath, 12 ministers from OBC category

The Madhya Pradesh cabinet was expanded on Monday with the induction of 28 new ministers. MLAs including Kailash Vijayvargiya took oath as ministers.

Governor Mangubhai Patel administered the oath of office and secrecy to 28 members of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's cabinet in a ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

Apart from Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, there are two Deputy Chief Ministers in the cabinet, Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Deora.

Of the 28 ministers who took oath, 18 are cabinet ministers, 4 are ministers of state and 6 are ministers of state with independent charge. A total of five women including two cabinet rank Sampatiya Uike and Nirmala Bhuria and three ministers of state Krishna Gaur, Pratima Bagri and Radha Singh have been included in Yadav's cabinet.

Apart from Kailash Vijayvargiya and Prahlad Patel, Vijay Shah, Karan Singh Verma, Rakesh Singh and Uday Pratap took oath as ministers in the Mohan Yadav-led government. Along with this, Sampatiya Uike, Tulsiram Silavat, Edal Singh Kasana, Govind Singh Rajput and Vishwas Sarang also took oath of office and secrecy as ministers in the MP government.

Apart from these, Nirmala Bhuria, Narayan Singh Kushwaha, Nagar Singh Chauhan and Pradyuman Singh Tomar also took oath as ministers.

The total strength of the cabinet, including the Chief Minister (Mohan Yadav) and two Deputy Chief Ministers (Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Deora), is now 31. The maximum number of cabinet members in Madhya Pradesh can be 35 including the Chief Minister.

CM Mohan Yadav said, "After achieving a landslide victory under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, our double engine government will move forward under the leadership of him and JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah."

In the assembly elections held last month, BJP had won 163 seats and Congress had won 66 seats. Apart from Yadav, Shukla and Deora took oath of office on December 13.