Amid speculation about a Cabinet expansion in the Chhattisgarh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai left Raipur for New Delhi on a late-night flight on Monday. Upon his arrival in the National Capital, Chief Minister Sai stayed overnight at Chhattisgarh Sadan in New Delhi. According to official sources, Chief Minister Sai is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament House on Tuesday. The discussions with the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister will focus on the expansion of his Cabinet. Two new ministers are expected to be inducted into the Cabinet of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai’s BJP Government in Chhattisgarh. The Chief Minister will finalise the names of these two Cabinet ministers after consulting with the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister.

 

Currently, the BJP Government in the State comprises 10 Cabinet ministers and the Chief Minister. The maximum number of Cabinet Ministers allowed, including the Chief Minister, is 13. With the recent resignation of Brijmohan Agrawal from his ministerial post, there is now room for the induction of two additional Cabinet ministers. Several MLAs are considered frontrunners for these cabinet positions, including Bilha MLA Dharamlal Kaushik, Bilaspur MLA Amar Agrawal, Durg Town MLA Gajendra Yadav, Kurud MLA Ajay Chandrakar, Raipur North MLA Purandar Mishra, and Kondagaon MLA Lata Usendi. A BJP leader mentioned that the swearing-in ceremony for the two new Cabinet ministers might take place before the monsoon session, which is expected to commence on July 22. In the interim, Chief Minister Sai is handling the departments previously overseen by Brijmohan Agrawal.

 

Political sources also suggest that there could be opportunities for some new faces to join the cabinet in the Sai Government. The government will need to appoint members to various boards and corporations which is pending. This process will occur only after the full cabinet is constituted and those not getting a place in the cabinet may look for opportunities in the boards and corporations. But all the previous governments had delayed appointments to these positions in the past may be to lessen financial burden on the government.