Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan rewards close aides in Cabinet rejig

Bhopal: In a major rejig of portfolios by inducting new faces and dropping veterans from the Cabinet, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has rewarded those close to him with important ministries like Home, Industries, Water Resources, while downsized those who tried to flex muscles. After formation of the new Cabinet, Chouhan took over two days to decide on the vexed issue of allocating portfolios. The portfolios were allocated after 10 pm on Saturday night. There is, however, no word on the constitution of the novel Ministry of Happiness, which the CM had announced earlier. [caption id=“attachment_2431872” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shivraj Singh Chouhan. AFP[/caption] Chouhan gave a free hand to Ministers of State by giving them independent charge of few departments, something never done by any of his predecessors before. Ministers known to be close to him like Bhupendra Singh was given the important Home Ministry, while government’s trouble shooter, Narottam Mishra was rewarded with the Water Resources and Public Relations portfolios. Chouhan also raised the stature of Rajendra Shukla by allocating him Industries Ministry, just ahead of the mega event, Global Investors Meet. Besides, Singh will continue to retain Transport Ministry while Mishra, Parliamentary Affairs. The chief minister also rewarded his trusted minister, Rampal Singh with the Public Works Department. Balancing power between the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, Chouhan took away Industries from Yashodhara Raje Scindia but rewarded another member of the family, Maya Singh with an all important Urban Administration and Development department, which is mandated to implement Smart Cities and Metro Rail projects in the state. Similarly, he cut to size Uma Shankar Gupta by taking away Higher Education Department from him and allocated it to Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, a strongman in the Gwalior region known to challenge the supremacy of the Scindias.