After a meeting of the Rajasthan council of ministers at his home Saturday evening, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot called on Governor Kalraj Mishra and handed over the resignations of three ministers before his cabinet undergoes a major overhaul tomorrow. The governor accepted the resignations of Govind Singh Dotasra, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma who had offered to step down and sent the proposal to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday.
Sources told CNN_News18 that the party high-command has given its approval for a fine balancing act that will see former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, who had stepped down after a public rebellion over Gehlot’s ‘high-handedness’, getting five wins with his loyalists occupying three cabinet berths and two minister of state posts. Gehlot’s new cabinet will include 15 new faces, four of whom will be junior ministers. Among the new ministers is a BSP MLA too. Interestingly, four of the probables are from the Scheduled Caste category; three MoS have been elevated to the cabinet who also belong to the SC quota.
Sources said that no independents have been given posts in the new cabinet which has been designed on the lines of Punjab in the wake of the 2023 assembly polls.
The Congress party has also called a meeting of all its MLAs at 2 pm on Sunday to decide the allocation of portfolios, sources said. All ministers in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan resigned during the meeting at Gehlot’s home, but their resignations were not given to the Governor.
The strength of the Ashok Gehlot cabinet was 21 before the three ministers resigned, now leaving 12 spots open. Rajasthan, where the number of MLAs is 200, can have a maximum of 30 ministers, including the chief minister.
The oath ceremony is likely to be held at 4 pm tomorrow, sources added.
- News18 has learnt the names of all 12 probable candidates for the state cabinet.
- Those from the Ashok Gehlot’s camp are Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya, Shakuntala Rawat, Govind Ram Meghwal, Mahesh Joshi and Ramlal Jat.
- Those chosen from the Sachin Pilot coterie include: Murari Lal Meena, Ramesh Meena, Brijendra Ola and Hemaram Chaudhary will also take oath at ministers.
- The others are Vishvendra Singh, Bhajanlal Jatav, Tikaram Jully and Mamata Bhupesh, sources said.
- Sources also said that apart from ministers, 15 parliamentary secretaries can be made.
- The oath-taking ceremony of new ministers is likely to take place at the governor’s house on Sunday at 4 pm.
- Earlier Saturday, Gehlot and AICC general secretary in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken as well as PCC chief Dotasra addressed a Kisan Vijay Diwas gathering. After that, Maken and Gehlot held a meeting at a hotel. Maken arrived in Jaipur on Friday night and told reporters about the resignation of the three ministers who desired to work for the party. While Dotasra is the PCC chief, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma are in charge of the party’s affairs in Punjab and Gujarat respectively.
- Rajasthan can have a maximum of 30 ministers, including the chief minister.
- The clamour for a reshuffle had been growing for several months with Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot’s camp demanding that his supporters be accommodated in the government.
- Apart from Congress MLAs, independents supporting the government and MLAs who defected from the BSP to Congress also have expectations from the reshuffle. Gehlot had recently hinted that a reshuffle will take place soon.
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