It’s not often that the Opposition roots for the inclusion of a ruling party member as part of the Cabinet. However, the MP Congress did just that when it asked the BJP government why Kamal Patel, a former revenue minister, was left out in the recent Cabinet expansion. The query was a sarcastic reference to the state Cabinet which included three tainted ministers. Patel who had allegedly made crores after the BJP came to power in Madhya Pradesh lost his ministerial berth when the party thought his continuation would be an embarrassment to the party. Taking a dig at CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Congress asked why “poor” Patel was ignored when other tainted partymen like Ajay Vishnoi and Narottam Mishra had made the cut.

Contractors under watch

Cabinet expansions are usually followed by newspaper advertisements congratulating the new entrants. Leading the pack of ‘supporters’ in the state capital were builders and contractors who made no bones about their affiliations to individual ministers. “The result of such ‘sweet relations’ is the sub-standard quality of constructions and roads,” the Opposition quipped warning the contractors that it would blacklist them and probe cases of shoddy construction when it came to power.

Rajnath’s birthday ‘wishes’

BJP president Rajnath Singh’s tirade against conversions has not gone down well with the Catholic Church. Singh came down heavily on conversions advocating a special legislation to curb them at a grand function organised in Bhopal to celebrate the 75th birthday of party veteran Kailash Sarang. The invitees included AICC general secretary and former CM Digvijay Singh and representatives of various religions. “Why did you not come out with such a law when your party was in power?” the Catholic Church asked in a letter to Singh.