Rahul Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress
The new cabinet in Rajasthan, which was sworn in on December 24, was finally allocated portfolios late on Wednesday night after several rounds of intense discussion in Delhi. The portfolio allocation to the 23 ministers was preceded by several rounds of meetings in Delhi since chief minister Ashok Gehlot landed in the Capital on Wednesday evening. Sachin Pilot went to national capital a night earlier. The two leaders were in Delhi to iron out difference over the distribution of portfolios as reports suggested they did not agree on the allocation of the home and finance departments.
Gehlot met senior Congress leaders Avinash Pande and KC Venugopal before the three went to meet party president Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi met Pilot after this meeting. Reports in local dailies suggested that Rahul Gandhi went to meet his sister Priyanka Gandhi after these meetings. Gehlot, meanwhile, returned to Jodhpur House. Gandhi and Gehlot met twice thereafter before the orders for the portfolio allocation were issued around 2am.
Earlier on Wednesday, two senior BJP leaders had mocked the delay in portfolio distribution after the ministers were sworn in on December 24. Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said there are two governments in the state, one headed by Gehlot and the other by his deputy, Pilot. State BJP president Madanlal Saini said the two parallel governments in the state were fighting each other.
Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh allocated the portfolios to the council of ministers late on Wednesday night with the advice of the chief minister, kept nine departments with him, including finance, home, excise, planning, personnel, state intelligence, information technology and general administration departments.
Pilot has been given five departments. They include public works, rural development and panchayati raj, science and technology and statistics, according to an order by the cabinet secretariat.
Apart from the chief minister and deputy chief minister, 13 cabinet and 10 ministers of state were allocated portfolios. The cabinet expansion took place on Monday.
BD Kalla has been given energy, public health engineering, groundwater, art, culture and archaeology departments, and Shanti Dhariwal got urban development and housing, law and parliamentary affairs. Dhariwal held these portfolios in the 2003-2008 Gehlot government as well. Parsadi Lal Meena has been named
the industries minister, and Bhanwar Lal Meghwal got social justice and empowerment department. Lalchand Kataria received the agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries departments. Raghu Sharma has been given the medical and health, and information and public relations portfolios.
Pramod Bhaya is the mines minister and will also handle the gopalan department. Vishvendra Singh got tourism and devasthan departments. Harish Chaudhary was allocated revenue and Ramesh Chand Meena got food and civil supply. Anjana Udailal was made cooperative minister and was also given Indira Gandhi canal project department, Pratap Singh got the transport and soldier welfare departments while Shale Mohammad minority affairs and waqf.
Among the ministers of state, Govind Singh Dotasara has been named the education minister with independent charge, and Mamta Bhupesh, the lone woman face, is the minister for women and child development (independent charge). Arjun Singh Bamaniya got tribal area development department as independent charge and Bhanwar Singh Bhati is the minister of higher education (independent charge). Sukhram Bishnoi got the forest and environment portfolio with independent charge and Ashok Chandna is the new youth affairs and sports minister.
Tika Ram Jully has been named the labour minister and Bhajan Lal Jatav is the minister for home guards and civil defence. Rajendra Singh Yadav was named the minister with independent charge for state motor garage, and RLD MLA Subhash Garg was allocated technical education (independent charge) and Sanskrit education (independent charge).
Here's why Congress' win in Rajasthan battle could cost it the war in 2019
With a seasoned third-time chief minister and a young deputy chief minister, the Congress in Rajasthan is witnessing an uncomfortable change in its working style. Crucial decisions regarding the state are now being taken in New Delhi, largely because any difference of opinion between the ‘united’ duo – Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot – is put directly before Rahul Gandhi.
The events in the grand old party leading up to the election – and even after that – suggest that the ego war between Gehlot and Pilot is unlikely to end anytime soon.
When Pilot took his oath with chief minister Gehlot, he became the first deputy chief minister of the party in Rajasthan to do so. In his earlier tenure, the Gehlot government had two deputy chief ministers – Kamla Beniwal and Banwari Lal Bairwa. However, they were appointed only as a ‘caste balance’ measure eyeing the then 2003 polls.
In that sense, Pilot has emerged as a strong contender in pursuing his will against Gehlot – who has so far successfully set aside the leaders pitched against him.
Despite Gandhi backing Pilot, Gehlot has maintained an upper hand in the state by attaining the top post,
reshuffling the bureaucracy even before the announcement of the cabinet and later inducting his men in majority in the cabinet.
The state cabinet has inducted 25 ministers, including the chief minister and the deputy chief minister. While four out of the 13 cabinet ministers – Bhanwarlal Meghwal, Harish Choudhary, Ramesh Chandra Meena, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas – are from the Pilot camp, eight – B.D. Kalla, Shanti Dhariwal, Parsadi Lal Meena, Lalchand Kataria, Vishvendra Singh, Udailal Anjana and Shale Mohammad – are staunch Gehlot supporters.
Out of the ten state ministers – Govind Singh Dotasara, Mamta Bhupesh, Arjun Bamniya, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Sukhram Bishnoi, Ashok Chandna, Tikaram Jully, Bhajanlal Jatav, Rajendra Yadav and Subhash Garg – at least six are loyalists of Gehlot and three of Pilot. While the two leaders are making an all-out effort to outmanoeuvre the other, the enthusiasm of the newlyformed Congress government in the state is reduced to waking up to a new deadlock every so often – where Gandhi has to intervene.
The ticketing process of the grand old party has been the biggest blunder with nine Congress rebels who were denied ticket winning the contest as independents. Several of these rebels were loyalists of Gehlot and have been a part of the previous Congress government led by him. Six of these rebels who emerged victorious, such as former minister from Dudu Babulal Nagar, approached Gehlot the morning after the results to lend their support to his candidature for the top post.
It must be noted that the Congress fell short of one mark in attaining the majority on its own in the state assembly polls. Govind Singh Dotasra, the recentlyinducted state minister from Laxmangarh in Sikar, told The Wire that the working of the Congress party is no different this time. “The Congress party is known to work democratically and that is what it is doing now. There is no sort of infighting in the party as projected in media reports.”
At a time when delivering on promises should be a priority, the Congress in Rajasthan is occupied with settling its own power equations.
Many political analysts believe the factions in the state Congress would do more harm than good. “There are undoubtedly two power centres in the state who cannot reach any consensus on their own, and that is unlikely to help in facilitating governance in the state. If the condition remains so, the party will suffer in the general elections too,” Rajendra Bora, senior journalist and a political analyst based in Jaipur told The Wire.
The loan waiver announcement by the newly-formed Gehlot government is being seen as a welcome step – a promise kept by Rahul Gandhi. However, chances of its delivery seem improbable considering the handful amount set aside for it. Out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, the newly-appointed ministers have covered the majority of the districts, leaving behind certain regions where the performance of the party in the assembly polls was already poor.
These include Bhilwara, where the party could manage only two of the seven seats, Rajsamand, where Congress won two of the four seats but the senior leader C.P. Joshi is still out of the cabinet, Pali, where Congress couldn’t win a single seat and Ganganagar, where the party won two seats while the BJP grabbed three.
While the announcement of the portfolios of the ministers, including deputy CM Pilot is still pending, it remains to be seen whether the ministers would be given a say when the bureaucrats have been already appointed according to Gehlot’s choice.