Chhattisgarh CM allocates portfolios, keeps excise with him: Check details

The strength of the state cabinet is 12. Sai will also handle Energy, Public Relations, Commercial Tax (Excise) and Transport departments and all other departments not specifically assigned

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Friday assigned portfolios, keeping Mineral Resources, Commercial Tax (Excise) and General Administration Department with himself while giving home to deputy CM Vijay Sharma and finance ministry to IAS-officer-turned MLA O P Choudhary.

The strength of the state cabinet is 12. The Chhattisgarh cabinet can have 13 ministers at most, including the chief minister.

Sai will also handle Energy, Public Relations and Transport departments and all other departments not specifically assigned to any minister, said the gazette notification issued by the General Administration Department.

Vijay Sharma was given key departments of Home and Jail, Panchayat and Rural Development, Technical Education and Employment and Science and Technology.

 

Another Deputy CM Arun Sao would handle Public Works, Public Health Engineering, Law and Legislative Affairs and Urban Administration departments.

O P Choudhary was assigned, besides Finance, Commercial Tax, Housing and Environment and Planning, Economics and Statistics departments.

Senior party MLA and minister Brijmohan Agrawal was allocated School Education, Higher Education, Tourism and Culture, Parliamentary Affairs and Dharmik Nyas (religious trust) and Dharmsva departments.

Ram Vichar Netam will be the minister for Agriculture Development and Farmer Welfare, Scheduled Tribes Development, Scheduled Castes Development, Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Minorities Development departments.

The lone minister from the Scheduled Castes community in the cabinet, Dayaldas Baghel, was assigned Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. At 69, Baghel is the oldest member in Sai's cabinet.

The youngest and only woman minister in the cabinet, Laxmi Rajwade (31) has been given the charge of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare departments.

Kedar Kashyap has got Forest and Climate Change, Water Resources, Skill Development and Cooperative Departments while Lakhanlal Dewangan will handle Commerce and Industry and Labor departments.

Shyam Bihari Jaiswal was given Public Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education and Twenty Point Implementation departments.

Tankram Verma will be the minister for Sports and Youth Welfare and Revenue and Disaster Management departments.

Agrawal, Netam, Kashyap and Baghel have served as ministers in previous BJP governments in the state, while CM Sai has been a Union minister during the first term of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

Choudhary, Verma and Rajwade are first time MLAs. Jaiswal and Dewangan have been elected as legislators for the second time.

The cabinet has six members belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), three from the Scheduled Tribes, one from the Scheduled Caste category, while two are from the general category.

Of the five administrative divisions in the state, the cabinet has four members from Surguja division, three from Bilaspur division, two each from Raipur and Durg divisions and one from Bastar division.

The BJP came back to power in the state by dislodging the Congress in the Assembly polls held on November 7 and 17, results of which were declared on December 3.

The BJP won 54 seats in the 90-member Assembly, while the Congress got 35, down from the 68 it won in the 2018 edition.