Newly-appointed Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday cancelled political appointments made by the Kamal Nath-led Congress government, which lost power last week, The Times of India reported.
Chouhan shifted Rajgarh district collector Nidhi Nivedita, who had allegedly slapped Bharatiya Janata Party workers during a rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act in January.
Chouhan cancelled appointments to the posts of chairpersons and members of commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, The Indian Express reported. He also transferred some IAS officers, including Chief Secretary K Gopal Reddy and senior bureaucrat Iqbal Singh Bais.
On March 16, Nath had appointed Reddy as chief secretary and had also appointed the heads of several constitutional bodies. The very next day, the Bharatiya Janata Party urged governor Lalji Tandon to cancel appointments made by the Congress government, saying that the party was in minority and had no power to do so. BJP had alleged that the appointments were unlawful and unconstitutional.
Chouhan took oath as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister on Monday evening, three days after Nath resigned from the post hours before his government was to face a floor test in the Assembly. The demand for a floor test had arisen after long-time Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP, following which 22 MLAs who were his loyalists also quit the ruling party. Chouhan’s government won the trust vote in the Assembly on Tuesday.
Before Scindia’s exit and the subsequent resignations of MLAs loyal to him, the Congress government in the state had the support of 121 MLAs in the 230-seat Assembly – 114 MLAs of the Congress, and the rest being from the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, and some Independents.
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