BJP's caste equation in Madhya Pradesh - glimpse of 'Mission 2024' seen today

MP Politics: Finally, after a long wait, the cabinet of Mohan Yadav government has been expanded in Madhya Pradesh. On the 22nd day after the election results came on December 3, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has come into full existence in the state. However, for this Mohan Yadav, who became the Chief Minister for the first time, had to work hard. Before cabinet expansion, he had to visit Delhi thrice. The party has also kept ‘Mission 2024’ in mind and this is clearly visible in the selection of ministers.

After the big victory in 3 states of the Hindi belt at the beginning of the month, BJP is very excited and is making all the efforts keeping in view next year's Lok Sabha elections. An attempt has also been made to set the caste equation in cabinet selection. If seen on the basis of caste, out of 28 ministers, maximum number of Other Backward Class (OBC) MLAs have been made ministers. 12 ministers including the Chief Minister have been made from the OBC community while 7 MLAs from the upper caste have been given ministerial posts.

Complete focus on OBC community

In the politics of Madhya Pradesh, BJP has been focusing completely on the OBC community since the beginning. BJP has so far made 4 Chief Ministers in the state who all come from the OBC community. The population of OBC community here is more than 50 percent (50.09%). Seeing the way caste based census is being demanded in many states of the country, BJP has tried to set the caste equation here.

Apart from Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, other people from the OBC community who have been made 11 ministers include Prahlad Singh Patel, Andal Singh Kasana, Narayan Singh Kushwaha, Uday Pratap Singh, Rakesh Singh, Karan Singh Verma, Krishna Gaur, Inder Singh Parmar, Dharmendra. Lodhi, Narayan Panwar and Lakhan Patel are included. By giving full opportunity to the OBC community in cabinet selection, BJP is trying to show that it is a party friendly to the backward classes amidst the demand of caste census of the opposition parties.

As much share as share

BJP has taken special care of 'As much as one's share is, so is his participation'. The general category has 13.21 percent share in the state and in view of this, 7 people have been kept in the cabinet. Apart from Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla, 6 MLAs from the upper caste community have been made ministers which include Kailash Vijayvargiya, Vishwas Sarang, Pradyuman Singh Tomar, Govind Singh Rajput, Chaitanya Kashyap and Rakesh Shukla.

SC-ST community has also been given special importance in the new cabinet of the state. More than 36 percent of the population here belongs to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and 9 people have been included in the state cabinet. 5 MLAs from SC category have been made ministers while 4 MLAs who belong to ST category have also been made ministers. ST population in the state is 21.1 percent and SC population is 15.6 percent.

Full focus on 'Clean MP' in 2024

The 6 MLAs from Scheduled Caste (SC) who have been made ministers are Tulsi Silavat, Dilip Jaiswal, Gautam Tetwal, Radha Singh and Pratibha Bagri. Whereas the 4 MLAs who became ministers from tribal community (ST) are Nirmala Bhuria, Vijay Shah, Sampatia Uike and Nagar Singh Chauhan.

Lok Sabha elections are to be held in the country a few months after the assembly elections ended in 5 states including the Hindi heartland. BJP has got a bigger victory than expected in all three states of Hindi belt (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh). With this victory, BJP's enthusiasm for 'Mission 2024' has increased significantly and it is making every effort to ensure that when the Lok Sabha elections are being held after a few months, it will not have to struggle much to achieve victory.

Amidst the growing demand for caste census from the opposition parties, BJP has taken special care of the caste situation in the selection of Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. After Chhattisgarh, an attempt has been made to include every section in the cabinet expansion in Madhya Pradesh. There are 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh and in the 2019 elections, BJP had won 28 seats, whereas this time it is trying to win all the 29 seats. In such a situation, the way caste equation has been set in the selection of ministers in the cabinet, now it has to be seen how much benefit BJP gets from it in 'Mission 2024'.