Madhya Pradesh: All the CM's men

Bhopal: It has truly been an eventful journey for Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. During his 12-year-tenure in the office, he has transformed himself from being a shy, simple and vulnerable politician to a wily leader with mass appeal, thanks to the plot scripted by half-a-dozen bureaucrats of his government.

The narrative scripted by the CM’s inner coterie has helped him emerge from the shadows of firebrand former chief minister Uma Bharti and turn into a charismatic leader to lead the ruling BJP to power in MP third time in a row in the last Assembly elections.

He has earned brickbats from both inside and outside BJP for being guided by his bureaucrats even ignoring his ministers and party MLAs, but he seems to be unruffled by the criticism. He preferred, if his loyalists are to be believed, to tread the course charted by his “blue eyed boys” in the bureaucracy.

Among Mr Chouhan’s men Friday are:

S.K. Mishra, principal secretary to the CM.
Mr Mishra, a state administrative officer was promoted to IAS cadre, is known to be the CM’S trouble shooter. He was said to have helped him  tide over many crises he had faced during his tenure.

Mr Mishra was instrumental in helping the CM emerge unscathed from challenges such as dumper scandal and Vyapam scam in which he was linked by the Opposition Congress.

In 2010, Mr Chouhan was absolved of the allegations of misuse of his office to rent out dumper trucks to an industrial group as a quid pro quo for allotting out of turn mining leases by the corruption watch dog, Lokayukta.

Similarly, he was cleared of charges levelled by the Congress of tampering the hard disc of an official computer to bail him out of the Vyapam scam involving irregularities in admissions in different medical colleges in MP in the past several years, by the Supreme Court.

Mr Mishra, who retired on October 30 this year, was reappointed to the post by the chief minister with the approval of the state cabinet recently.

Manoj Srivastav, secretary, MP culture department.
Mr Srivastav, a 1987 batch IAS officer of MP cadre, is credited with transforming Mr Chouhan as a mass leader by conceiving programmes to connect him to the common people.

He had organised ‘Jan Darshan’  or public redressal programmes for the chief minister to connect him to the people, thus building his image as a “people’s chief minister”.He was also instrumental in cultivating a vote bank (women) for Mr Chouhan by conceiving various schemes to empower women.

The “Ladli Laxmi” scheme, his brain child, aimed at taking care of education and health of girls, has projected Mr Chouhan as ‘saviour’ of girl child.

Iqbal Singh Bains, additional chief secretary.
Mr Bains, a 1985 batch IAS officer of MP cadre, is known as a tough task master and a competent administrator. He has played a key role in removing flaws in governance in MP, thus making the delivery system effective.

This has ensured success of various government welfare programmes in MP yielding rich dividends for the ruling in elections.

Rakesh Srivastav, commissioner-cum- principal secretary of the state PR department.
Mr Srivastav, a state administrative officer promoted to IAS cadre, is known as man of ideas as far as promoting image of the CM and publicising various government programmes are concerned.

Vivek Agrawal, principal secretary, revenue & excise.
Mr Agrawal, a 1994 batch IAS officer of MP cadre, is considered one of the the CM’s blue eyed boys.

Rakesh Rahane is former chief secretary and present chairman of MP state electricity regulatory commission.
Mr Rahane was the chief secretary during the first tenure of Mr Chouhan as chief minister. He was said to have helped in building Mr Chouhan as a ‘pro-people’ chief minister and wily politician capable of countering threats to his position from his rivals such as Uma Bharti and Babulal Gaur, both former chief ministers. He was said to be enjoying Mr Chouhan’s confidence.

Narottam Mishra, minister for parliamentary affairs.
Mr Mishra is known to be an effective floor manager when the state Assembly is in session saving the state government from embarrassment many a time. He is also said to have a grip over the administration owing to his proximity to the chief minister.