Former Congress minister in the Manmohan Singh government, Jyotiraditya Scindia, on Thursday used Salman Khan’s film to issue a warning to his former party colleagues, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh. This was after 12 of 22 Scindia loyalists, who had defected to the BJP to bring down the Kamal Nath government, were accommodated in the Shivraj Singh government as ministers on Thursday.
The 102-day-old Shivraj Singh government went for the second round of cabinet expansion on Thursday when Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office to 28 ministers including 20 cabinet ministers and eight ministers of state.
12 Scindia loyalists, who have been included in the MP cabinet are Imarti Devi, Mahendra Singh Sisodiya, Prabhuram Chaudhary, Pradumn Singh Tomar, Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon, Suresh Dhakad, OPS Bhadoria, Brijendra Singh Yadav, Giriraj Dandotiya, Aidal Singh Kansana, Bisahulal Singh and HS Dang. Of them, Imarti Devi, Mahendra Singh Sisodiya, Prabhuram Chaudhary and Pradumn Singh Tomar were cabinet ministers in the previous Congress government headed by Kamal Nath.
Two other Scindia loyalists namely Govind Singh Rajput and Tulsi Silawat are already part of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet, taking the number of Scindia supporters in the state cabinet to 14.
Reacting to the inclusion of 12 more supporters in the Madhya Pradesh cabinet, Scindia said, “I would like to tell them both. Kamal Nath ji and Digvijay Singh ji, do listen to me. Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai (This tiger is still alive).”
Film Tiger Zinda Hai starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif had collected more than Rs 500 crore at the box office in 2017.
Scindia had officially quit the Congress in March this year before joining the party along with 22 MLAs, leading to the downfall of the Kamal Nath government in March this year. The Centre’s Narendra Modi government had faced criticism for destabilising a democratically elected government even amidst a global pandemic.