Madhya Pradesh gets first Muslim minister in 15 years

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday inducted 28 MLAs into his Cabinet including Arif Aqueel, the lone Muslim MLA face in the new council of ministers.

Aqueel, MLA from Bhopal North, is the first Muslim minister in the state after 15 years. The seemingly down to earth politician, always dressed in crumpled kurta and wearing his trademark ‘chappals’ has never lost the seat since 1990, except in 1993 when Ramesh Chandra Sharma from Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) defeated him.

Since then, his hold continues on the constituency–winning it every time, from 1998. Aqeel began his political career in the ’70s from Saifia College as a student politician.

Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of and secrecy to the 28 new ministers at the Raj Bhavan in Bhopal on Tuesday.

For obvious reasons, 11 Kamal Nath loyalists found ministerial berths while nine from Congress veteran’s Digvijay Singh’s camp including to his son Jaivardhan Singh, seven berths were offered to former union minister Jyotiradiya Scindia’s camp, and one from former state party chief Arun Yadav’s camp.

There are only two women faces inducted into the Cabinet -former minister and the ex-Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Laxmi Sadho from Maheshwar and Imarati Devi from Dabra.

The session of the newly elected Assembly in MP is scheduled to begin from 7 January.