Nearly a month after the formation of the BJP government in Rajasthan, 12 Cabinet Ministers and 10 Ministers of State were sworn in at a ceremony in Raj Bhavan in Jaipur on December 30. Governor Kalraj Mishra administered the oath of office to the newly inducted Ministers, who included former Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and former Rajya Sabha Member Kirodi Lal Meena.
Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma earlier met the Governor to seek his approval for new appointments to the Council of Ministers. With this, the Council of Ministers now comprises 25 members, including Mr. Sharma and his two deputies, Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa.
Among the 10 Ministers of State, five were given independent charge. Official sources said the Ministers would get their portfolios by next week, even as the Opposition Congress has been targeting the State government over the delay in the Cabinet formation. Former CM Ashok Gehlot had recently said that the governance had come to a standstill in the BJP rule.
Besides Mr. Rathore and Mr. Meena, the MLAs inducted as the Cabinet Ministers were Madan Dilawar, Gajendra Singh Khimsar, Babu Lal Kharadi, Joga Ram Patel, Suresh Singh Rawat, Avinash Gehlot, Jora Ram Kumawat, Hemant Meena, Kanhaiya Lal Chaudhary and Sumit Godara.
Jayal MLA Manju Baghmar was the lone woman inducted as a Minister of State. Dr. Baghmar, a Dalit face of the BJP, holds a doctorate degree and was a faculty member in the Department of Business Administration at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur. With her appointment, the Council of Ministers has two women members, the other being Ms. Kumari.
Besides Ms. Baghmar, the other Ministers of State were Ota Ram Dewasi, Vijay Singh Chaudhary, K.K. Vishnoi and Jawahar Singh Bedham. The Ministers of State with independent charge were Sanjay Sharma, Gautam Kumar Dak, Jhabar Singh Kharra, Surendra Pal Singh and Heera Lal Nagar.
A good balance
The new Council of Ministers was perceived as a mix of castes and regions, accounting for the representation of Jats, Rajputs, Brahmins, OBCs and Scheduled Castes as part of the BJP’s social engineering exercise in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While maintaining the balance between the old and new faces, the BJP has ensured that first-time MLA Mr. Sharma, appointed the CM, is accompanied by some experienced Ministers.
The Council of Ministers now comprises two Brahmins, three Rajputs, four Jats, three Dalits, three tribals and one member each from Sikh, Vaishya, Patel, Vishnoi, Dhakar, Dewasi, Gujjar, Rawat, Saini and Kumawat communities. Among the 12 Cabinet Ministers, as many as eight have been given the ministerial responsibility for the first time.
Controversial appointment
Mr. Meena, Mr. Khimsar, Mr. Dilawar, Mr. Dewasi and Mr. Surendra Pal Singh have earlier served as Ministers in the State, while Mr. Rathore was a Union Minister. However, Mr. Singh’s induction as a Minister of State (independent charge) was a surprise move, as he is the BJP candidate in the election to the Karanpur Assembly seat, which was postponed after the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kooner.
The polling will be held in Sriganganagar district’s Karanpur on January 5 and the result declared on January 8. The Congress, which has fielded Mr. Kooner’s son Rupinder Singh at the seat, took strong exception to Mr. Singh’s appointment and accused the ruling BJP of violating the model code of conduct.
Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Singh Dotasra said his party would make a complaint to the Election Commission and demand action, as this was probably the first instance in the country when a candidate had been made a Minister even before the election.
“The BJP’s ego is at is peak. It has defied the Election Commission and made an attempt to influence the voters. But the Congress is going to win the Karanpur seat with a huge margin,” Mr. Dotasra told journalists in Jaipur. The PCC chief also said that the party would consider moving the Rajasthan High Court in the matter seeking a stay on Mr. Singh’s elevation as a Minister.
