BJP’s 3rd innings to begin from December 12

CM busy in shortlisting new faces for his cabinet

Raipur, December 09

BJP will start its third innings in Chhattisgarh with swearing-in ceremony on December 12. The party’s newly elected legislators on Monday completed formality of electing CM Raman Singh as their leader in presence of BJP’s central observer Venkaiah Naidu, party’s national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan and State incharge JP Nadda.  

In his first interaction with the party legislators, Singh reiterated that the BJP would meet public expectations and fulfill every promise it made in manifesto. Terming his third term as challenging, he said he was committed to develop his government as a prototype for the nation by taking development to every nook and corner of the State.

After getting clear majority, Singh, on late Sunday evening, had tendered his resignation to Governor Shekhar Dutt. He is now busy in sieving the party MLAs to pick appropriate ones in his cabinet.  

With five of his ministers failing to comprehend public pulse and falling flat in the recently held polls, Singh has most challenging task of filling the gap with blend of new and seasoned MLAs.

Among the frontrunners for ministerial berth include BJP State president Ramsewak Paikra, Ajay Chadrakar, Shivratan Sharma, Gaurishankar Agrawal and Bhaiyyalal Rajwade. Continuing the trend, Singh might hand over portfolio of women and child development department to a female legislator. As Lata Usendi, who was looking after this department, failed to save her seat, the three new MLAs in race for the portfolio are Suneeti Rathiya, Ramsheela Sahu and Champadevi Pavel.

Since speaker Dharamlal Kaushik and deputy speaker Narayan Chandel too conceded defeat, the speaker’s post is likely to go Premprakash Pandey who had successfully conducted House at such capacity during BJP’s first tenure - from 2003-2008. However, Ajay Chandrakar too is said to be in the race.

According to information, top BJP leaders including BJP president Rajnath Singh, Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma swaraj, Arun Jaitely, Narendra Modi and Venkaiah Naidu would attend the oath-taking ceremony of Raman Singh government.