BHOPAL: Halfway through the tenure of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Mohan Yadav has initiated the process of making political appointments to various boards, corporations and commissions.
However, two of these political appointments have assumed significance considering their past equations with Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
One of them is former Lok Sabha member K P Yadav who has been appointed as chairman of the state civil supply corporation, considered as a plum position.
Mr. Yadav shot into limelight when he delivered a shocking defeat to Mr. Scindia in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Guna in the state.
The former MP, who was a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Scindia when the latter was in the Congress, switched over to the BJP from the grand old party before the 2019 LS polls.
He was fielded by the BJP against Mr. Scindia, then in Congress, in the 2019 LS polls and won the seat for the BJP, giving the latter his maiden poll loss in his political career.
Mr. Scindia joined BJP in 2020 following his differences with former chief minister Kamal Nath along with his followers in the Congress Legislature Party then, leading to the fall of the Kamal Nath government.
The BJP had later sent Mr. Scindia to Rajya Sabha in 2020.
The union minister however retained the Guna LS seat, considered the bastion of Scindia family, in the 2024 LS elections as a BJP candidate following denial of party ticket to Mr. Yadav by the BJP from the seat.
This had left Mr. Yadav sulking.
Mr. Yadav has now been accommodated as head of the state civil supply corporation.
Interestingly, state food and civil supplies minister Govind Singh Rajput is considered a staunch loyalist of Mr. Scindia.
He had joined BJP along with Mr. Scindia in 2020.
The other political appointment which is being much discussed in the political circles is of Ram Nivas Rawat, the former working president of Madhya Pradesh Congress who joined BJP barely a fortnight before the 2024 LS polls.
He is considered a political heavyweight in the Gwalior-Chambal region in Madhya Pradesh.
He was made forest minister in the Mohan Yadav government after he resigned from the state Assembly and joined BJP.
But he had lost the by-election to Vijaypur Assembly constituency in Sheopur district in the state a year ago and subsequently resigned from the state ministry.
Mr. Rawat has now been appointed the chairman of state forest development corporation.