Eleven months after forming government in the state, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is yet to arrive at a consensus with the Centre on probable inductions to her cabinet. Raje is yet to induct a full-fledged cabinet and has only 11 ministers apart from the CM. Raje, who had initially deferred the induction promising a berth on the basis of performance in the parliamentary polls, has now hit a roadblock failing to arrive at a consensus with the Centre on the proposed list of cabinet ministers. While the RSS lobby has clearly indicated its recommendations, Raje has drawn up her own list, which highly placed sources in the party say is yet to receive a nod from the center. During her three-day stay in New Delhi earlier last week, Raje failed to secure an appointment with party national chief Amit Shah, when she was hoping to finalize the state cabinet expansion. Busy with the Maharashtra and Haryana elections, Shah had to leave for his whirlwind tour of Haryana. However party insiders say that Shah deliberately postponed the discussion as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not in the country and Shah did not want to take a decision on it by himself. Not only Raje, the entire senior party leadership in the state has been cold-shouldered by the center. State party president Ashok Parnami and senior leader Gulab Chand Kataria, who too have been doing the rounds of the party headquarters, with a copy of the probables list, have failed to get an appointment with senior party leaders. Meanwhile disaffection has spreading among senior legislators who have been waiting in anticipation of a berth since Raje assumed office in December last year. “Initially we were told that if we managed to help the party win in the parliamentary elections, we would be suitably rewarded and were given the responsibility to help candidates in our own constituencies and neighbouring areas. After the elections were over and the results came, the cabinet expansion plans are still in a limbo,” said a senior legislator, whose name has been doing the rounds for the new cabinet. Raje has been single-handedly running the show in the state with as many as 47 portfolios to herself. With key portfolios such as home, finance, industry, revenue, civil defence, forest among others resting with the CM, Raje’s second term has been riddled with trouble. She has had to face flak for poor governance and law and order in the state. Drawn in to campaign for the upcoming polls in Maharashtra and with the local body elections slated in November, Raje’s attention is divided between running the state and her political engagements. In the state legislative assembly, the Raje government has been pulled up by the Opposition as former legislator Sanwar Lal Jat continued to attend sessions in the capacity of a cabinet minister even after being elected as a member of parliament and resigning as a legislator. Even as the Opposition alleged that the state government is facing a constitutional crisis without a full-fledged cabinet, the Speaker Kailash Meghwal came to the government’s rescue justifying that Jat could hold his portfolio for six months after his resignation as MLA in May. The ruling government must have at least six percent of the total assembly strength as cabinet ministers that is 12 ministers in Rajasthan. Jat’s ministership will nullify in November and the state government is set to face a constitutional crisis if the expansion is not effected by then.
