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Ahead of Rajasthan Cabinet rejig, Gehlot collects resignations of ministers
There is already a vacancy for 12 ministers in the cabinet, while a couple of ministers may be dropped in the rejig planned for Sunday afternoon.
A day ahead of the scheduled cabinet reshuffle, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has collected the resignation letters of all his ministers on Saturday.
Gehlot convened a meeting of the Council of Ministers at his residence and there the members were asked to tender their resignations to facilitate the cabinet reshuffle.
There is already a vacancy for 12 ministers in the cabinet, while a couple of ministers may be dropped in the rejig planned for Sunday afternoon.
After the meeting, Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariywas said, “All the ministers have tendered their resignations as directed by the party.” He added that all the ministers would be going to the state party office on Sunday and then would move according to directions from Ashok Gehlot.
The clamour for a Cabinet reshuffle had been growing for the last several months with senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot’s camp demanding that supporters of the state’s former deputy chief minister be included in the government.
On Friday, three ministers -- Govind Singh Dotasara, Raghu Sharma and Harish Choudhary -- wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, offering to quit their posts and work for the party. Their resignation was on expected lines as they were holding dual positions – Health Minister Raghu Sharma is AICC in-charge of Gujarat; Revenue Minister Choudhary is AICC in-charge Punjab and Education Minister Dotasara is the Rajasthan Congress chief.
AICC general secretary in-charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken, who arrived in Jaipur on Friday, was also present at the chief minister’s residence.
Apart from the Congress MLAs, independents who support the government and MLAs who defected from the BSP to Congress also have expectations from the reshuffle.
At present, there are 21 members in the Council of Ministers including the chief minister. There can be a maximum of 30 members in the Council of Ministers in the state where the number of MLAs is 200.
A minister on condition of anonymity said, “There were nine vacancies, and three submitted their resignation yesterday, taking the tally to 12 but it is expected that two to three more ministers can be dropped. In addition to this, there are also possibilities of the appointment of a few parliamentary secretaries,” he said.
Political analyst Manish Godha said the Rajasthan CM asking for resignations from all the ministers meant a major reshuffle of departments, promotion from state to the cabinet, and also being dropped from the cabinet. “This reshuffle is different from what Gehlot has done in his previous tenure as this time he has to discuss the changes with the high command. Even today his statement claiming that only Maken and the high command knows what is going to happen in the rejig, indicates that he does not have a free hand,” he said.
