Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on Saturday expanded his cabinet in the desert state.
The newly elected CM Sharma met governor Kalraj Mishra on to seek his approval for the council’s expansion.
Sharma, who is a first time MLA, his deputies includes Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa.
Sharma was recently spotted in Delhi, where he met BJP’s top brass. He has brought in a mix of new and experienced faces in the BJP ruled state.
Here are the BJP leaders who took oath as ministers:
MLAs inducted into the Rajasthan cabinet:
Kirodi Lal Meena, Madan Dilawar, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gajendra Singh Khinvsar, Babulal Kharadi, Jogaram Patel, Suresh Singh Rawat, Avinash Gehlot, Joraram Kumawat, Hemant Meena, Kanhaiya Lal Choudhary and Sumit Godara.
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List of ministers of state (independent charge):
Sanjay Sharma, Gautam Kumar, Jhabar Singh Kharra, Surendra Pal Singh and Heeralal Nagar.
Five others took oath as ministers of state:
Ottaram Dewasi, Manju Baghmar, Vijay Singh Choudhary, K K Bishnoi and Jawahar Singh Bedam.
Regional equations given attention in Rajasthan:
While the CM is a Brahmin, caste and regional equations has been given attention.
Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the focus will likely be on ensuring all regions get representation.
At the same time, social engineering will ensure that all major castes get full representation in the cabinet.
In the current cabinet, the state has a Brahmin CM along with Diya Kumari from the Rajput community and Prem Chand Bairwa from the Scheduled Caste as deputy CMs, respectively.
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The expanded cabinet will likely comprise faces from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which constitute 35-40% of the state's population. MLAs from the Meena and Gurjar communities will also likely be placed in the cabinet.
Opposition raised questions:
The opposition parties, including the Congress, criticised the BJP-led government over the delay in the cabinet formation.
Former CM Ashok Gehlot said earlier that the governance of the state came to a standstill due to the delay in the cabinet formation.
"Disappointment has now started spreading among the public because the people of Rajasthan gave a clear mandate to BJP on 3rd December, but even after 22 days, the cabinet has not been formed yet, due to which governance has come to a standstill. Every department is also in a state of confusion. The public is watching which ministers they should approach to solve their problems. The cabinet should be formed as soon as possible so that the functioning of the government can run smoothly," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
