Rajasthan Cabinet Resignation: All Ministers Resign Ahead Of Reshuffle, 15 Congress Leaders To Take Oath

For several months, the clamour for a reshuffle had been growing with former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot’s camp demanding that his loyalists be accommodated in the state cabinet.

Ashok Gehlot & Sachin Pilot (File Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: All ministers in the Rajasthan cabinet have tendered their resignations in the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday.

A Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) meeting has been scheduled for Sunday.

“All the ministers have resigned. When it comes to re-formation, the process has now been completed. This is a process. There is a PCC meeting at 2 pm tomorrow, everyone will go there. Further directions to us will be issued there”: Pratap Khachariyawas, who served as transport minister in the Gehlot cabinet, said, as reported by news agency ANI.

This comes after Govind Singh Dotasra, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma offered their resignations in writing to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

After the meeting with the Council of Ministers, which was slated to be held at 5 pm but was pushed to later in the evening, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot reached Governor House in Jaipur to meet Governor Kalraj Mishra.

The oath ceremony of the new cabinet may take place on Sunday at Raj Bhawan, PTI reported official sources as saying earlier. As per inputs, the swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place at 4 pm.

Meanwhile, ANI shared a list of Congress leaders to be included in the new Rajasthan Cabinet.

As per the list, Hemaram Choudhary, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Ramlal Jat, Mahesh Joshi, Vishvendra Singh, Ramesh Meena, Mamta Bhupesh Bairwa, Bhajanlal Jatav, Tikaram Juli, Govind Ram Meghwal, and Shakuntala Rawat will be sworn-in as cabinet ministers.

Zahida Khan, Brijendra Singh Ola, and Rajendra Guda will be made ministers of state. 

Earlier in the day, CM Ashok Gehlot and AICC general secretary in charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken as well as PCC chief Dotasra addressed a ‘Kisan Vijay Diwas’ gathering. 

After that, the Chief Minister and Rajasthan affairs in charge held a meeting at a hotel.

Ajay Maken had arrived in Jaipur last night and informed reporters about the resignation of the three ministers who, in their letter to Sonia Gandhi, expressed a desire to work for the party.

While Govind Dotasra is the PCC chief, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma are in charge of the party’s affairs in Punjab and Gujarat respectively.

After their resignation, the strength of the Cabinet was reduced from 21 to 18. Rajasthan can have a maximum of 30 ministers, including the chief minister.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had recently hinted that a reshuffle will take place soon.

For several months, the clamour for a reshuffle had been growing with former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot’s camp demanding that his loyalists be accommodated in the state cabinet.

 Sachin Pilot had also met Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in September to discuss his future as well the accommodation of some of his loyalists in the state cabinet.

Last year, Congress had managed to save its state government in Rajasthan after Sachin Pilot rebelled against CM Ashok Gehlot over long-standing differences. 

In the political crisis, Sachin was removed as the deputy chief minister and replaced as state Congress president by Govind Singh Dotasra.

(With Agency Inputs)