MP cabinet expansion: Ex-Cong leader Ramniwas Rawat takes oath as minister

Bhopal, July 8 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expanded his cabinet on Monday with the induction of Ramniwas Rawat.

Rawat (64), a six-time former Congress legislator from the Vijaypur Assembly constituency, had joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha election.

Governor Mangubhai Patel administered the oath to Rawat at Rajbhavan.

With this induction, the number of ministers in CM Mohan Yadav's cabinet increased to 31. There can be a total of 34 cabinet ministers in the 230-member Assembly of Madhya Pradesh.

After the oath ceremony, Rawat is likely to resign from the MLA post setting the stage for the bye-election in the Vijaypur seat within the next six months.

Rawat, who was first elected MLA from Vijaypur in 1990, was a minister in former CM Digvijaya Singh's cabinet in 1993. An OBC leader from the Gwalior-Chambal region, Rawat had contested the Lok Sabha election against BJP's Narendra Singh Tomar in 2019 from Morena but lost.

In the Assembly election held in November last year, the BJP returned to power with a stunning victory and Congress could bag 66 seats only.

Since then, three Congress MLAs have shifted to the BJP, including Ramniwas Rawat, Kamlesh Shah and Nirmala Sapre.

"I want to work for the people of Vijaypur, who elected me MLA six times. With the BJP government, I would be able to fulfil public aspirations," Rawat said before taking oath as minister.