Rajasthan: Eye on 2019, 18 of 25 Lok Sabha seats represented in Gehlot Cabinet

Twenty-three ministers were sworn-in in Jaipur on Monday, 18 of them first-time ministers. Thirteen of them are Cabinet ministers and 10 ministers of state. The Cabinet has one woman minister — Sikrai MLA Mamta Bhupesh — and Shale Mohammad, the MLA from Pokaran, is the only Muslim minister.

Subhash Garg, the lone MLA of Congress’s pre-election alliance partner RLD, who won from Bharatpur constituency, has been included in the ministry. None of the 25 first-time legislators found a place in the Cabinet.

The ministers have not been allotted departments as yet.

Fourteen of the state’s 33 districts have found no representation in the Cabinet. Of the remaining, Jaipur and Bharatpur districts led the list with three MLAs each in the Cabinet, and Dausa and Bikaner districts have two representatives in the ministry.

The names of council of ministers were reportedly finalised by state Congress leaders, including Gehlot and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, after rounds of discussion with party chief Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders in New Delhi.

PTI reports that party MLAs who had won in the 2013 Assembly elections despite the “Modi-wave” were also given ministerial berths. These include Ramesh Meena, Govind Dotasara, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Sukhram Vishnoi, Ashok Chandna and Rajendra Yadav, all first-time ministers, the agency reports.

Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh administered the oath of office to the ministers at the ceremony attended by Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.

The Cabinet ministers are B D Kalla, Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, Parsadi Lal Meena, Master Bhanwar Lal Meghwal, Lal Chand Kataria, Raghu Sharma, Pramod Jain Bhaya, Vishvendra Singh, Harish Choudhary, Ramesh Chand Meena, Udailal Anjana, Pratap Singh Khachariawas and Shale Mohammad.

The ministers of state sworn-in Monday are Govind Singh Dotasara, Mamta Bhupesh, Arjun Singh Bamnia, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Sukhram Vishnoi, Ashok Chandna, Tika Ram Jully, Bhajan Lal Jatav, Rajendra Singh Yadav and RLD’s Subhash Garg.

With some senior party leaders not getting a look-in, state Congress leaders said that some of them may be given constitutional posts. Senior party leaders and newly elected legislators C P Joshi, Deependra Singh, Parasram Mordia and Bhanwarlal Sharma, among others, have not been made ministers.