Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav on Monday expanded his ministry by inducting six-time MLA Ramniwas Rawat who switched over to ruling BJP from Congress during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
This was the first expansion of his ministry by Mr Yadav after he assumed office seven months ago.
Interestingly, Mr Rawat had to be sworn in twice by governor Mangubhai Patel for misreading a few words while taking oath of office and secrecy as a cabinet minister in the Mohan Yadav ministry.
The veteran leader, who was a cabinet minister in the Digvijay Singh government in late 1990s, misread ‘Rajya Ke Mantri’ (cabinet minister) as ‘Rajya Mantri” (minister of state) while reading out his oath as a cabinet minister.
The gaffe by Mr Rawat created confusion as to whether he was sworn in as a minister of state or a cabinet minister, prompting the chief minister to clear the air on it.
Mr Yadav said that Mr Rawat was inducted as a cabinet minister in his ministry.
Later, Mr Rawat was sworn in for the second time by the governor as a cabinet minister.
Mr Rawat’s induction in the state cabinet has however triggered a political row with the Congress claiming that he has not resigned from the Assembly after he joined the BJP, violating particular Constitutional provisions.
“Mr Rawat should have resigned from the Assembly before being inducted in the state cabinet. This should have been appropriate politically”, senior Congress leader Vivek Tankha said in a post in X, formerly Twitter.
Mr Rawat who joined BJP on April 30 this year made it clear that he had already resigned from the house on July five.
Mr Rawat is considered a tall OBC leader in Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh.
In fact, BJP had wooed him into the party during the LS polls to win the Morena LS seat where the party had found itself on a sticky wicket before the polls.
Mr Rawat was the working president of state Congress before he joined BJP.
He was said to be arch rival of Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia during their time in Congress.
Mr Scindia had raised a banner of revolt against former chief minister Kamal Nath and quit Congress along with 23 party MLAs, his supporters, in March 2020 leading to collapse of the Kamal Nath government.
He later joined BJP along with his supporters who included Congress MLAs.
