By IANS,
Raipur : Eleven members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which made a triumphant return to power in the November assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, were sworn in as ministers here Monday.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office to the new members of Chief Minister Raman Singh’s team at the jampacked Police Parade Ground here in a 30-minute ceremony amid loud slogans and clapping by an estimated 15,000 BJP supporters.
However, hundreds of sympathisers of a few ministerial aspirants who failed to make it expressed displeasure and anguish over the way ministers had been selected.
The newly sworn in ministers are Nankiram Kanwar, Brijmohan Agrawal, Ramvichar Netam, Punnuram Mohile, Chandrasekhar Sahu, Amar Agrawal, Hemchand Yadav, Vikram Usendi, Rajesh Munat, Kedar Kashyap and Lata Usendi. Five of them are from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
Raman Singh retained seven members from his previous council of ministers while four new faces also found place.
The maximum strength of the council of ministers in Chhattisgarh’s 90-member assembly can go up to 13, including the chief minister.
Singh inducted three leaders, Viktam Usendi, Kedar Kashyap and Lata Usendi, from the Maoist insurgency-hit Bastar as the party recorded the best ever performance there by winning 11 out of the 12 seats in the region.