MP cabinet expansion: 2 elderly ministers asked to go

Bhopal: The BJP was in a last-minute tizzy on Thursday over the Madhya Pradesh cabinet expansion and reshuffle with two central leaders meeting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here and reportedly persuading two elderly ministers to resign.
Sources said Home Minister Babulal Gaur, 86, and PWD Minister Sartaj Singh, 76, have been asked to go.
After murmurs in the party over who will be included in the cabinet and who will be dropped from it, the central Bharatiya Janata Party leadership sent Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, who is in Charge of the party affairs in Madhya Pradesh, and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar here to thrash out the issues with Chouhan.
Sahastrabuddhe and Tomar had a two-hour intensive discussions with Chouhan and other leaders after which they also met Gaur and Sartaj Singh who, sources said, have been asked to resign.
The cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle is scheduled on Thursday evening.
It is the first such exercise since Chouhan took office in December 2013 for his third successive term as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.
Sources in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Archana Chitnis, Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, Ramlal Rautela, Rustam Singh, and Vishwas Sarang are among those likely to be made ministers.
The elderly ministers are likely to be relieved and the portfolios of six others are likely to be changed, they said.
Chouhan and Sahastrabuddhe on Wednesday met BJP President Amit Shah and General Secretary (Organisation) Ramlal to discuss the possible inductees into the state council of ministers. (IANS)