Nearly a month after election results were declared, giving the BJP a booming victory in Rajasthan, the wait for it to form a Cabinet continues. As the Congress ramps up its attack on the BJP over the delay, the best the BJP side has to say is that the appointment of ministers will take place “soon”. The BJP had also won Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh along with Rajasthan, and already has Cabinets there, though the MP oath-taking too took place as recently as Monday. In Rajasthan, where the BJP pulled a big surprise with its CM name – first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma – after battling open and not-so-open friction within camps, even the two Deputy CMs sworn in along with Sharma, Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa, are yet to have any departments allotted to them. Given the uncertainty and the display of ruthlessness by the central leadership in making its choices, the BJP MLAs who remain hopeful of Cabinet berths have largely fallen back on silence – and temple visits and yagyas to please the gods. Even the huddle around Vasundhara Raje that lasted till after the elections has now dwindled as MLAs avoid the risk of being seen as taking sides, her stature as the party’s tallest leader notwithstanding. “This is the new BJP, everyone is clueless. We have the slogan ‘Bhajapa hai toh bharosa hai’, but there is no bharosa (confidence) when it comes to whom the party leadership will pick. We can only pray,” a party leader said. There are many cautionary tales to take cues from. For example, Raje's outspoken supporter and former Assembly Speaker Kaliash Meghwal, who was expelled and denied a ticket and went on to lose the polls. Or Narpat Singh Rajvi, also a prominent Raje camp leader, who found himself shifted from his safe seat in Jaipur to Chittorgarh, from where he lost to party rebel Chandrabhan Singh. Post results, Kalicharan Saraf had emerged as another prominent face of the Raje camp. The Pro-tem Speaker post was dangled before him, but finally it was RSS pick Vasudev Devnani who was made the Speaker. But there are others who believe that, having sent a message, the BJP will now be more accommodating towards Raje as well as big names such as former Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore, who also lost this time, and take in their supporters. Recommendations of central leaders such as Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Om Mathur and others from the state may also find a place in the new Council of Ministers, apart from at least one of the four religious leaders elected, Mahant Pratap Puri, Baba Balaknath, Balmukundacharya and Otaram Devasi. The other factor will be caste equations. Having chosen a Brahmin CM, and a Rajput and Dalit as Deputy CMs, one of the top groups the BJP will consider are Jats, who won't be happy about being overlooked for the top three positions. Moreover, all three leaders occupying the top posts represent Jaipur district, and so regional balance will have to be factored in. However, BJP leaders say seeing the three as representing Jaipur is wrong as CM Sharma originally hails from Bharatpur, while Diya Kumari has been an MLA from Sawai Madhopur and an MP from Rajsamand. Another consideration would be the Lok Sabha polls, due in a few months. In the last two elections, the BJP won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan – and is hoping for a hat-trick in 2024. Questioning the delay in Cabinet formation, former Congress CM Ashok Gehlot said Monday that the public had been let down after giving the BJP a clear mandate. “Governance has come to a standstill. Every department is in a state of confusion,” he said, adding that people were unsure whom to approach for their problems. On Tuesday, Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra, referring to the incident in Churu where a Dalit man was beaten to death on suspicion of power cable theft, said: “What is this? It has become a joke. Even after 25 days, they haven’t been able to form a Council of Ministers. Even the CMO is without officials. All the bureaucrats are sitting idle and liaising to get good posts. Someone is running to Delhi, others are approaching politicians or the CM, and even those who were public representatives earlier but lost this time.” On the BJP's defence that Cabinet expansion would happen “soon”, he said: “By 'soon' should we understand five years, 12 months or New Year?. People are wondering. that Modiji, Naddaji and Amit Shahji did a new experiment, but could this also be a new experiment that they won’t constitute a Council of Ministers and keep running things with Bhajan Lalji.” The Congress is also attacking the BJP government over the uncertainty regarding the fate of the Gehlot Ministry's popular welfare schemes. Although the CM has said that no scheme of the previous government would be stopped, at least two – Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Mitra internship and Mahatma Gandhi Seva Prerak – have been halted. Similarly, on the Gehlot government's flagship Chiranjeevi scheme, Sharma said health insurance up to Rs 25 lakh would be provided, but as part of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. On the free medicine scheme, he said more medicines would be brought under it. However, the Congress ranks too are battling some uncertainty, particularly over the post of Leader of the Opposition. Considered one of the frontrunners, Dotasra said the picture would be clear – soon. “I assure you that before the Assembly begins (on January 19), the Leader of Opposition will have been chosen and would have started working.”
