Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expanded his council of ministers on Monday, 24 December with 23 ministers, including one from Congress ally Rashtriya Lok Dal, being sworn in at the Raj Bhavan in Jaipur.
Of the 23, 13 are cabinet ministers and 10 are ministers of state.
Governor Kalyan Singh administrated the oath of office to the new ministers at an event attended by Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and senior Congress leaders.
Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, who took oath on 17 December, returned to the state capital Sunday noon after spending three days in New Delhi for a meeting with Congress President Rahul Gandhi and senior party functionaries.
The names of council of ministers have been finalised by the state Congress leaders including Gehlot and Pilot after rounds of discussion with Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders, sources said.
AICC general secretary in charge of Rajasthan, Avinash Pandey and Congress observer for the state on government formation, KC Venugopal, besides AICC secretaries for the state were also involved in the deliberations for deciding on the ministers, the sources said.
Rahul Gandhi intends to focus on having a Cabinet with a majority being fresh faces, the sources said, adding the Cabinet will be a blend of the old and new guard and will give an opportunity to those who have not held ministerial portfolios in the past.
Meanwhile, Gehlot has so far initiated a few transfers of officials with the likelihood of a thorough reshuffle of bureaucrats after the cabinet formation.
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, Udai Lal Anjna, Pratap Singh Khachariawas and Saleh Mohammad.
The ministers of state sworn in 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.
Rajasthan can have a total of 30 ministers including the chief minister, and the Gehlot Cabinet will have some vacancies left which will be filled later.
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