In the run-up to a cabinet reshuffle by the Congress-led government in Rajasthan, three ministers holding important portfolios resigned from their posts. State Congress in-charge Ajay Maken announced the resignation of education minister Govid Singh Dotasara, health minister Raghu Sharma and revenue minister Harish Chaudhary on Friday. The much-delayed Rajasthan cabinet expansion will take place on November 22, after the Congress high command finally gave its nod.
Maken, who reached Jaipur, said Dotasara, Sharma and Chaudhary wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi about their resignation as ministers, and their interest in serving the party organisation.
Maken, however, added, “The resignations are yet to receive an official stamp. The letters of resignation will first be sent to chief minister Ashok Gehlot and then to the governor. All three leaders hold important party posts as well.”
Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot have been meeting top Congress leaders in New Delhi, with the chief minister meeting president Sonia Gandhi last week.
Gehlot also met Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the residence of Rahul Gandhi, where general secretaries Ajay Maken and KC Venugopal were also present. The meeting discussed various modalities such as adopting the formula of ‘one man, one post’ while also considering appointments in the cabinet.
Pilot, too, recently met Priyanka and Rahul to discuss his future as well as the accommodation of some of his loyalists in the new cabinet.
The reshuffle holds immense significance as the Pilot faction is expecting that he will be made CM before the state goes to polls in 2023. In July last year, Pilot mounted an open rebellion against Gehlot following which he was removed as the deputy CM and as the panchayati raj minister. Pilot loyalists Vishvendra Singh, who was the tourism minister, and Ramesh Meena, the then food and civil supplies minister, were also shunted out.
Sources in Delhi had earlier told CNN-News18 that at least four MLAs from the Pilot faction are likely to be inducted as cabinet ministers in the Gehlot-led cabinet.
In January, the Congress appointed Pilot’s loyalists to the party state executive in an attempt to show some balance. The reshuffle now will not just show where Pilot stands in the Congress, but will also reflect the high command’s stance.
Including Gehlot, there are 21 cabinet members — 10 cabinet ministers and 10 ministers of state — and up to nine more can be accommodated. Similarly, there are vacancies in party units at the district level.
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