Jaipur: Ending a month-long speculation, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje rejigged her council of ministers on Saturday. She inducted six new ministers, promoted two and dropped two and appointed five more parliamentary secretaries.
With the latest expansion, third after coming to power, the CM has now fully utilised the constitutionally provided capacity of 30 ministers. Apart from the CM, there are now 165 cabinet ministers and 14 ministers of state and 10 parliamentary secretaries.
Among the new ministers Srichand Kriplani and Jaswant Yadav have been given cabinet minister’s rank while Kamsa Meghwal, Bansidhar Bajia, Dhan Singh Rawat and Sushil Katara are ministers of state. Since, the CM had room for only four new ministers, she dropped Arjun Lal Garg, a dalit, and Jeet Mal Khant, an adivasi, to make way for another two.
Minister of state Babulal Verma who is a dalit has been promoted as cabinet minister, along with Ajay Singh Kilak who is a Jat, and nephew of union minister C. R. Choudhary. Among the new parliament secretaries are Shatrughan Gautam, On Prakash Hudla, Kailash Verma, Narendra Nagar and Bhima Bhai.
The much awaited cabinet expansion that was widely expected to come after Diwali took place just three days before the third anniversary of her government and reflects her careful attempt of social engineering and regional balance. Among the six new ministers two are adivasi, one dalit, two OBC and one general. Among those who got promotion one is Jat while another is dalit.
Eyeing to capture traditional Congress vote bank of Jat, Dalit and Adivasi particularly in the wake of Congress wooing Jats back to its fold by inducting leaders like Dr. Hari Singh and Subhash Maharia from the BJP; the CM had to send a message to the community thus Bansidhar Bajia a jat from Sikar got the chance to counter Dr Singh and Maharia in that area. Ajay Singh Kilak's promotion is due to massive rally by independent Hanuman Beniwal in the heart of Jat politics in Nagaur where he has been emerging as a leader to fill the void after decline in Mirdha family's influence.
Old Loyalist Babulal Verma promoted as he is not only the dalit face of the party in Hadauti while Kamsa Meghwal a dalit got reward by replacing Arjun Lal Garg from the same region because in an area dominated by Maderna and Vishnoi families, she has been winning elections for the BJP.
Dhan Singh Rawat and Sushil Katara's inclusion is indication of the BJP's seriousness in building on the foundation laid down by the RSS among advasis in the Mewar region where the congress could win only one seat out of 17 in the last assembly elections.
The caste equation also saved cabinet minister Hem Singh Bhadana who is a Gurjar at the last moment to avoid fury of the community following Rajasthan High Court's decision yesterday to scrap Gurjar reservation. Yet, the CM still has no minister from the powerful Meena community in the ST category that can make an impact in half a dozen districts of Eastern Rajasthan.
