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Gehlot Ministry to be sworn in today

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will announce his Council of Ministers on Friday. Though the names in the team of Ministers and their total strength are yet to be disclosed, the ministers are scheduled to take oath at Raj Bhawan at 10-15 in the morning. Given the compulsions of the numbers -- the Congress is short of five MLAs for crossing the half way mark of 100 in the Assembly -- it took almost a week for Mr. Gehlot, who was sworn in alone on Saturday last, to go about the Ministry formation.

Mr. Gehlot has made it known that he would not have any deputies though initially there had been talks about inducting at least two deputy Chief Ministers, including one from the Jat community. Mr. Gehlot had two deputies in his previous Ministry, sworn in during an expansion. Though no Deputy Chief Minister this time, it is a forgone conclusion that he would take in a good number of Jats, including some of his own detractors in west Rajasthan, in his Cabinet.

The biggest challenge before Mr. Gehlot is the balancing act needed to ensure the support of at least a dozen MLAs. This act may not be difficult in the case of Independents who are the Congress rebels but if he plans to induct some of the known faces from the BJP in the past, such as Kirori Lal Meena, that may put a question mark on the very secular credentials of his Government. Another option Mr. Gehlot has in this regard is to opt for the lesser evil by choosing Golma Devi, wife of Dr. Meena who too has won as an Independent. Mrs. Devi has no Sangh Parivar baggage with her. There has to be representatives of all major communities including Brahmins, Rajputs and Vaishyas, besides Dalits, Scheduled Tribes and members of the Muslim community, women in the team. The choices before Mr. Gehlot are limited this time because many of the party stalwarts, such as former Ministers Pradhyumna Singh, B.D. Kalla, Harendra Mirdha, Ram Kishen Verma, and Pradesh Congress chief C.P. Joshi, have lost the elections.

It is not known whether Mr. Gehlot would take in some new faces as Ministers of State this time as the previous time he had taken a stand against giving ministerial berths to first timers in the Assembly -- barring in posts of parliamentary secretaries.

Mr. Gehlot has to visualise his Council of Ministers in the context of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has to keep all sections happy in the coming three-four months by giving them representation in the Government while the onus of delivering goods also remains with the Team Gehlot.

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