New Delhi: Rajasthan Sports Minister Ashok Chandna on Thursday appealed to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to relieve him of his post, alleging that all the departments the Principal Secretary to Gehlot is anyway "the minister of all the departments." Making his displeasure public through a tweet, he said he does not want to hold on to the "dishonourable" ministerial post. The development comes just days ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in Rajasthan and indicates resentment within the party. 


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Ashok Chandna took to Twitter and wrote, "Honourable Chief Minister, I have a personal request to you. Free me from this cruel ministerial post and give the charge of all my departments to Kuldeep Ranka ji, because anyway, he is the minister of all the departments. Thank you."






Chandna is the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Skill Development, Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Disaster Management and Relief in the Rajasthan government.


The resentment within Rajasthan Congress is garnering attention as party leader Ganesh Goghra resigned from Congress last week. He alleged that despite being a ruling party MLA and the Youth Congress' state president, he was being neglected and his voice was being suppressed by local administration and officers.


According to news agency ANI, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot responded to Ashok Chandna's outburst saying, "he is under a lot of work pressure. He might have come under tension and made a statement, we should not take it seriously. I am yet to speak to him."






Meanwhile, Rajasthan Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said: "I believe that CM will talk about the matter. It is party's responsibility to take Ashok Chandna's tweet seriously. I'll personally talk to Chandna."


As expected, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) latched onto Chandna's tweet to attack the ruling Congress government. "The ship is sinking…The trends for 2023 begin to arrive," BJP state president Satish Poonia tweeted, attacking the screenshot of Chandna's tweet.


"This is an example of the 'governance' of the Ashok Gehlot government. It shows the weakness of the party high command. It also shows the influence of bureaucracy on the government," Poonia told news agency PTI.


"This has a pattern. Earlier, Ganesh Ghoghra sent a resignation and now Chandna has offered the resignation. This impacts governance," he added.


BJP MLA Vasudev Devnani also alleged that the ministers and MLAs do not have confidence in the Congress government of Rajasthan.


"The minister is demanding freedom from this corrupt government. If this is the condition of the ministers in the government, then what would be the condition of the public," he said.


(With Agency Inputs)