New Delhi :
The new Cabinet of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will take oath on Tuesday. The oath ceremony of Cabinet ministers will take place at Raj Bhawan of the respective states. In Chhattisgarh, at least 10 newly elected MLAs are expected to take oath as ministers at 11 am. Two senior legislators - TS Singh Deo and Tamradhwaj Sahu - had already taken oath as ministers on December 17 when Bhupesh Baghel sworn in as Chief Minister of the state. The names of ministers were decided during a meeting of Baghel and senior party leaders with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Saturday.
"The party has tried to give representation to leaders from all the communities in the Cabinet. Almost all the senior leaders have been covered. Besides 11 Lok Sabha constituencies are also kept in mind in view of 2019 elections while finalising the Cabinet", Baghel had said after meeting with Rahul Gandhi.
The 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly can have maximum 13 ministers, including the chief minister. Governor Anandiben Patel will administer the oath. The Congress party had registered a massive victory in the recently-held Chhattisgarh Assembly elections by winning 68 of the total 90 Assembly constituencies. The BJP, which was in power in the state since 2003, won only 15 seats.
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In Madhya Pradesh, Independents were likely to get big as new Cabinet of Chief Minister Kamal Nath takes oath on Tuesday at 11 am. Kamal Nath has been camping in New Delhi since the past three days to finalise the list of his Cabinet colleagues, to be sworn in Tuesday, in consultation with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders. The Congress party has finalised the names but they have not been made public so far.
According to party sources, one or two Independent MLAs may get into the new Cabinet. Though the Congress, with 114 seats, emerged as the single largest party in the 230-member Assembly, it failed to cross the halfway mark on its own and enlisted support of the BSP and the SP, which have won two seats and one, respectively.
Four Independent MLAs, who are Congress rebels, have also extended their support, taking the total number of MLAs on the Congress side to 121.
