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Tag: Rajasthan Cabinet rejig

  • Rajasthan Cabinet rejig: CM Ashok Gehlot allocates portfolios to ministers, retains home and finance

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday allocated portfolios to ministers of his expanded cabinet, retaining home and finance with him.

    Twelve new ministers were inducted and three ministers of state were elevated to the cabinet rank.

    The 15 ministers were sworn in on Sunday for the expanded Gehlot cabinet, fulfilling a key demand of former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot whose rebellion last year shook the state’s Congress government.

    The chief minister along with the finance and home portfolios, has kept taxation, personnel, general administration cabinet secretariat, information and public relation, and information technology and communication.

    ALSO READ: Rajasthan Cabinet expansion – Now Gehlot gets six MLAs as advisers, Mayawati calls it ‘deception’

    The department for NRI and the Rajasthan State Investigation Bureau are under Gehlot.

    Following the expansion, the council of ministers in the state has 19 cabinet ministers and 10 ministers of state.

    The Rajasthan Cabinet can have a maximum of 30 ministers, including the chief minister.

    From the old cabinet — Pratap Singh Khachariyawas was allocated food and civil supplies, Shanti Dhariwal retained urban development and housing, and parliamentary affairs, Lal Chand Kataria retained agriculture and Pramod Jain Bhaya retained mines and petroleum.

    BD Kalla and Parsadi Lal Meena were allocated education, and health and excise respectively.

    ALSO READ: Work has to be done with dedication to maintain people’s trust in Congress government, says Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

    The new ministers who got portfolios in the cabinet rank include Hemaram Choudhary (forest), Mahesh Joshi (PHED), Ramlal Jat (revenue), Ramesh Meena (panchayati raj and rural development), Vishvendra Singh (toursim and civil aviation), Govindram Meghwal (disaster management and relief) and Shakuntala Rawat (industries) and Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya (water resources).

    Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena were sacked last year from the Rajasthan cabinet along with Pilot for rebelling against Gehlot’s leadership.

    Vishvendra Singh in this expanded cabinet got back his old portfolio of tourism.

    Pilot and 18 other MLAs rebelled against Gehlot last year.

    ALSO READ: Two sacked ministers to find place in new Rajasthan Cabinet

    Mamta Bhupesh was allocated women and child development, Bhajan Lal PWD, Tikaram Jully social justice and empowerment, as they were elevated to cabinet rank from minister of state.

    The newly inducted ministers of state and their portfolios are Brijendra Ola (transport, devasthan and state enterprises), Murari Lal Meena (agriculture marketing, estate, tourism and civil aviation) and Rajendra Singh Gudha (sainik kalyan, home guards, panchayati raj and rural development).

    Zahida Khan (science and technology, printing and stationary, primary and secondary education, art, literature and culture) is also a new minister of state in the Gehlot cabinet.

    The ministers of state from the old cabinet who retained their portfolios are Arjun Singh Bamaniya (tribal area development), Ashok Chandna (sports and youth affairs) and Subhash Garg (technical education).

    ALSO READ: Rajasthan reshuffle: Elevation to Cabinet rank reward for work and dedication, say ministers

    Those who got new portfolios are Sukhram (revenue and labour), Bhanwar Singh Bhati (power-independent charge) and Rajendra Yadav (higher education).

    In the new and expanded cabinet, the three women ministers are Mamta Bhupesh and Shakuntala Rawat (cabinet rank) and Zahida (minister of state).

    Cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi is also chief whip while Minister of State Brijendra Ola is the son of former Union minister Sisram Ola.

    Minister of State Rajendra Gudha is one of the six MLAs who defected from BSP to the Congress.

    Among the 15 ministers who took oath on Sunday, Hemaram Choudhary is the senior-most MLA.

    He is a six time MLA.

    Ramlal Jat is a four-time MLA; Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Vishvendra Singh, Ramesh Meena, Brijendra Ola and Murari Meena are three-time MLAs, while rest of the ministers who took oath on Sunday are two-time MLAs.

  • Rajasthan Cabinet rejig gets tougher as ex-BSP MLAs camp in Delhi to press for berths

    Express News Service

    JAIPUR: The six former BSP MLAs, who had switched sides and joined the ruling Congress two years ago, are now the focus of political attention in Rajasthan. 

    On the one hand, they have to respond to the notice issued by the Supreme Court which asked them to reply on their move under the anti-defection law. Also, the MLAs are believed to be lobbying hard demanding that at least two of them be given ministerial berths. This is likely to complicate the upcoming reshuffle in the Gehlot cabinet expected to happen in the near future. 

    The former BSP legislators in question – Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana, and Rajendra Gudha – had backed the state government when former Rajasthan Deputy CM Sachin Pilot had rebelled against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last year. According to sources, they will meet the Congress high command on Friday to make it clear that they won’t back the government if Cabinet expansion doesn’t take place. 

    Memberships of the MLAs, who defected to the Congress in 2019, were challenged before the Rajasthan High Court and then in the Supreme Court after the Sachin Pilot revolt last year. Their memberships were challenged by the BSP and later by the BJP under provisions of the anti-defection law. Ahead of the trust vote in the Rajasthan Assembly last year, the BSP had issued a whip to its former legislators to vote against the Congress and had warned them of disqualification under para 2(1)(b) of the tenth schedule of the Constitution. 

    The Rajasthan HC on August 24, 2020, had dismissed the BSP’s plea challenging Speaker CP Joshi’s order dated September 18, 2019, whereby he approved the merger of the 6 BSP MLAs into the Congress Legislative Party. However, the HC gave the BSP the liberty to file a petition with the Speaker seeking action against the defection of Yadav, Ali, Kheria, Meena, Awana, and Gudha.

    This verdict was challenged in the Supreme Court, which recently asked these legislators to file their final replies. Officially, four out of six ex-BSP MLAs claimed they are in Delhi to discuss with senior lawyers and seek their opinion on how to present their cases. They claimed they are in Delhi to seek ‘legal and political support to save their memberships in the state assembly. 

    Beyond the tussle over their defection, the ex-BSP MLAs are clearly unhappy over the delay in cabinet expansion and political appointments. One of the MLAs Sandeep Yadav who is also camping in  Delhi since Wednesday night told the media, “We need to save our membership as MLAs at any cost for that purpose we are open to meeting Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, or even with Amit Shah, whoever help to save our membership we will support them”. 

    While CM Gehlot has refused to reshuffle his Cabinet so far, the recent meeting between Sachin Pilot, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has ignited a big buzz about major changes in the state. The ex- BSP MLAs are said to be demanding at least 2 ministerial berths when the cabinet is reshuffled. They are likely to meet AICC General Secretaries Ajay Maken and KC Venugopal in the next few days to press for their demands.   

    With 21 ministers, the Gehlot cabinet can have another 9 ministers as the upper cap is 30 in the state. For the 9 vacant spots, the Pilot camp is already demanding 4 berths and some of the 13 Independent MLAs who have been supporting the Gehlot government will also need to be accommodated. The demand for ministerial berths from the ex-BSP MLAs is all set to make the situation more complicated for the Congress which is already facing a huge turmoil in Punjab and can hardly afford to create another crisis in Rajasthan.