Bhopal: A tribal minister in Madhya Pradesh threatened to quit Monday after he was divested of two key portfolios to accommodate a defector from the Congress. Nagar Singh Chouhan was left with Scheduled Caste (SC) welfare portfolio after his other portfolios, environment and forest, were handed to Ram Niwas Rawat, who was made a minister after he quit the Congress.
In his statement to the media, Chouhan, a four-time MLA from the Alirajpur (ST) seat, who became a minister for the first time under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s government last year, accused the government of neglecting a core worker of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to placate a “Congress leader”. He also accused the government and the state BJP of abruptly stripping him of his ministries without consulting him or taking him into confidence.
“I am a very small worker of the BJP and have been fighting the Congress in Alirajpur, which is considered a fortress of the Congress, and eventually, emerged victorious. After a long time, Alirajpur got the opportunity for representation in the cabinet with me being made a minister. Seven months later, without asking me, two of the ministries were handed over to Congress leader Ram Niwas Rawat, who recently joined the party,” Chouhan told the media in Bhopal Monday.
“Being a core worker of the BJP and Jana Sangh, many workers across the state are extremely unhappy with the Congress leaders being given important positions in the BJP and looking at their sentiments, I feel I should not continue as the minister,” he said.
Chouhan was allocated the environment and forest ministries along with Scheduled Caste welfare in December 2023 after the formation of Yadav’s cabinet. But the environment and forest portfolios were reassigned to Rawat Sunday, weeks after he was inducted into the cabinet on 8 July.
Chouhan threatened to resign as a minister after the development, questioning his role as the Scheduled Caste development minister when his constituency in western MP has a negligible SC population. He said he felt he would be better suited serving the people while being an MLA instead of continuing as a minister.
Chouhan has emerged as a prominent Bhil tribal leader within the BJP. He was elected from the Alirajpur seat in the 2023 assembly elections, winning against Congress candidate Mukesh Patel by nearly 3,800 votes. His wife, Anita Nagar Singh Chouhan, became an MP for the first time in 2024 after winning against the Congress’s Kantilal Bhuria from the Ratlam-Jhabua seat, which covers the Alirajpur assembly segment, by 2.07 lakh votes.
“Position is not important for me when it comes to pride of tribals. It is not about the position, but the Congress leaders being given prominent places, killing BJP workers,” he said.
“If I was to be removed seven months down the line, why did they make me a minister in the first place? I could have continued to serve people being an MLA,” Chouhan added.
Responding to the situation, a senior leader of the BJP state organisation said, “We are in touch with Nagar Singh Chouhan and all differences will be amicably sorted out.”
Six-time Congress MLA Rawat quit the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and joined the BJP, giving it an edge in three Lok Sabha seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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