Vijayvargiya and Patel give CM-led Krishi Cabinet a miss

Bhopal: The absence of two senior BJP leaders and cabinet colleagues of CM Mohan Yadav from Monday's Krishi Cabinet has set off a flutter in the party's state unit, with insiders saying that a major shake-up or change could be on the cards.Adding grist to rumours that all might not be well in the ruling party in the state, two prominent and senior faces of the cabinet — urban administration minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and panchayat and rural development minister Prahlad Singh Patel — gave the Krishi Cabinet, chaired by the CM on Monday, a miss.Speculations to this effect started gaining ground on Saturday when Union home minister Amit Shah called all three – CM Yadav, Vijayvargiya and Patel for separate one-on-one meetings with him in the national capital, New Delhi. According to party insiders, Shah met the trio separately, with the CM going in first, followed by Vijayvargiya and thereafter, Patel. The Krishi Cabinet was convened just two days later in Barwani, which neither of the two senior ministers attended.Vijayvargiya, it is learnt, spent the entire morning singing and dancing at Bhagoriya events with fellow minister Nagar Singh Chouhan and his MP wife Anita Chouhan. In the afternoon, he met Tripura CM Manik Saha in his native Indore, while also attending other functions in the city. Prahlad Patel, according to party sources, spent most of the day in Bhopal, meeting with some cadres before leaving for Vidisha in the evening. "Considering their seniority and experience, the party might consider giving them prominent national or organisational roles again. This could explain why both ministers are keeping a distance from the state cabinet. A cabinet reshuffle and expansion have also been on the cards for long, and could happen soon. In fact, it could happen this month," a prominent party insider told BJPBoth these ministers are seen as BJP stalwarts, with Vijayvargiya a former party national general secretary, who oversaw poll preparations in West Bengal and helped the BJP entrench itself as the principal opposition in the state. Patel previously served as an MP for five terms from Balaghat and Damoh. He was also the Union minister of state for Jal Shakti, food processing industries, culture and tourism under the Narendra Modi-led govt, and the Union minister of state for coal in the previous Atal Behari Vajpayee govt. After the saffron sweep in the 2023 assembly elections, both Vijayvargiya and Patel were once in the race for the chief minister's post. Since the formation of the incumbent govt, it had been widely speculated that the two senior leaders were not comfortable serving in a cabinet replete with political greenhorns. Sources in MP BJP said the central leadership was also aware of the situation and the alleged communication gap between these leaders and CM Yadav.