Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Friday allocated portfolios to his Cabinet, most of whom took oath on Tuesday.
Nath kept the public relations, industrial policy and investment promotion department, the employment department, public service management and technical education with himself, PTI reported.
The key department of home went to tribal lawmaker Bala Bachchan. The minister, who was also a member of the state’s previous Congress government led by Digvijay Singh, also got the jails portfolio. The finance portfolio was assigned to Tarun Bhanot, while senior leader Tulsi Silawat was given the health department and Govind Rajput got revenue and transport department.
Prabhuram Choudhary was given school education, Vijaylaxmi Sadho got culture and medical education department, Hukum Singh Karada got water resources development, while Govind Singh was given cooperatives and parliamentary affairs. The public works department portfolio went to Sajjan Singh Verma, while the portfolios of minorities and other backward class welfare, and Bhopal gas relief and rehabilitation went to Arif Aqueel.
Digvijay Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh, who is the youngest Cabinet minister, was alocatted the urban administration department. Sachin Yadav got the agriculture and food processing department, while Imarati Devi was given the women and child development portfolio. Independent MLA Pradeep Jaiswal was assigned the mining portfolio.
Umang Singhar was given forest department, while Jitu Patwari was allocated the sports and youth affairs and higher education departments. Brijendra Singh Rathore got commercial tax, while Lakhan Singh Yadav was assigned animal husbandry, Omkar Markam got the scheduled tribes welfare portfolio, Sukhdeo Panse was given public health engineering and Harsh Yadav was assigned new and renewable energy, and cottage and village industries.
Kamleshwar Patel was assigned the panchayat and rural development department, and Lakhan Ghanghoriya got the social justice and scheduled caste welfare portfolios. Law and legislative affairs went to PC Sharma, while Surendra Singh Baghel got the Narmada valley development and tourism department, Pradyumn Singh Tomar was assigned food and civil supplies, Mahendra Singh Sisodiya got the labour department and Priyavrat Singh was allotted the energy department.
Nath was sworn in as chief minister on December 17, six days after the Congress emerged victorious against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly elections. Nath succeeds Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in power for 15 years. The Congress emerged the single-largest party with 114 seats, while the BJP got 109 – both parties were short of the majority mark of 116. With outside support, the Congress has 121 MLAs in the state.
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