New Rajasthan Cabinet Ministers to Take Oath Tomorrow After 3 Ministers Resign

Ajay Maken said that ministers Harish Chaudhary, Dr Raghu Sharma and Govind Singh Dotasra have offered to quit.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

Following the resignations of three ministers in Ashok Gehlot's Rajasthan government, the oath-taking ceremonies for the new ministers will take place at 4 pm on Sunday, 21 November.

Revenue Minister Harish Chaudhary, Medical and Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma and Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra, had offered their resignations to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, who accepted them on Saturday.

Harish Chaudhary had recently been appointed as the party in-charge of Punjab, while Dr Sharma became the in-charge of Gujarat and Dotasra is the president of Rajasthan Congress. The three of them offered their resignations in accordance with the party's 'Ek Pad Ek Vyakti' (One Person One Post) policy, according to Dostara.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Dostara said the three will continue to work on the ground as party workers to ensure the people of Rajasthan get the benefits of government schemes.

"The Congress party respects them. We are glad that there are such promising people who want to work for the party," Congress general secretary Ajay Maken told reporters.

• Even before the resignations of the three ministers, several new faces were expected to be inducted into the Gehlot cabinet.

• The cabinet can accommodate up to 30 ministers given the strength of the Legislative Assembly (200 MLAs), though only 21 ministers had been appointed till now.

• The chief minister had on Tuesday, 16 November, said that a cabinet reshuffle would soon take place.

• With 12 vacancies now to be filled, half are expected to be supporters of Gehlot from within the party, while the other half are expected to be from the Sachin Pilot camp.

Pilot had met Sonia Gandhi on 12 November, a day after her meeting with Gehlot, regarding a more expansive, accommodating cabinet in the state.

Among those in the running from Pilot's camp are Hemaram Choudhry, Deependra Singh Shekhawat, Ramesh Meena, Brijendra Ola and Murari Lal Meena.

The pool of candidates from Gehlot's camp include Mahesh Joshi and Rajkumar Sharma, who had joined the Congress from the BSP.

There is also talk that some independent MLAs might be offered ministerial berths as incentives.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)