When Raman Singh will be sworn-in for the third time as the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh on Thursday morning, one thing is expected to be on top of his mind — how to put a Council of Ministers in place within the next 72 hours.
According to Hindu calendar Kharmas additional month will start from December 16 and no auspicious work could be undertaken during this time. So, by the beginning of next week, the Cabinet has to be sworn-in, explained a BJP party official. However, selecting his team should not be a big problem as more than a dozen senior leaders of BJP have won, even while five Ministers and half-a-dozen senior leaders have lost as well. It is expected that by the time Mr. Singh leaves for Delhi he will be able to shortlist the names of Ministers after few rounds of meeting with BJP’s national organisational secretary, Saudan Singh.
The entire senior national leadership of BJP, including party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leaders L.K. Advani or Arun Jaitley will be in the Police Parade Ground in central Raipur to attend the swearing-in ceremony. Senior leaders Arun Jaitley, Venkaiya Naidu, Ravishankar Prasad, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Punjab’s Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal are also expected to attend the ceremony. Exactly five years back, on December 12, 2008, Mr. Singh took oath of office in the same ground.
Seven Ministers of the previous government — Brijmohan Agarwal, Amar Agarwal, Rajesh Munnat, Punnulal Mohle, Dayaldas Baghel, Kedar Kashyap and Bikram Usendi — have been re-elected and all of them are expected to get berths. Chhattisgarh can have 13 Ministers which is 15 per cent of the 90-member Assembly as mandated by the 91st amendment to the Constitution. Ram Sewak Painkra, BJPs State president, who has won from Pratappur in north Chhattisgarh, is expected to be the main tribal face of Raman Singh’s 13-member Cabinet. The other names which are making rounds are Ajay Chandrakar, party spokesperson, Debji Bhai Patel, Ramshila Sahu, Suniti Rathiya, Yudhveer Singh Judeo and Mahesh Ghaghra.
However, the challenge for BJP leadership would be to maintain a balance of Ministers from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class and upper castes. Previous Council of Ministers had five members from the ST community, two each from OBC and SC and three from the upper castes without a Brahmin. It would be difficult to maintain such a balance in 2013 as more than a dozen of tribal candidates of BJP are defeated.
“The problem is eight out of 11 tribal candidates have lost in Bastar, while two Ministers — Nankiram Kanwar and Rambichar Netam — were defeated in north…but we do need tribal Ministers as tribal population is nearly 35 per cent,” said a BJP official.
Moreover, BJP needs to have a Home Minister from tribal community in order to pacify the anger and frustration of the community after any massive security operation in Maoist controlled tribal areas of Bastar, feels many. But at the same time, it is quite dangerous to have a tribal Home Minister from Bastar. The person would be targeted immediately by the Maoists and providing security to the person would be hell of a job, said a senior intelligence official.
So, even after the election is long over, the Chief Minister is expected to have few more sleepless nights before working out a list of Ministers that would appease his colleagues and administrators.
