After the storm created by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s stinging remarks on his former deputy Sachin Pilot, the exercise for the presentation of the State Budget 2023-24, ahead of the schedule, has started in Rajasthan.
The State Assembly’s Budget Session is likely to be convened in January amid indications that Mr. Gehlot will try to consolidate his position among the ruling Congress MLAs.
Internal circulars issued by the State government’s Law Department and General Administration Department have reportedly instructed the officials concerned to finalise the Bills to be tabled in the Assembly and provide information on the achievements and progress of various schemes by December 20 to be incorporated into the Governor’s address to the House.
An early Budget Session is expected to strengthen Mr. Gehlot’s position despite the widening cracks within the ruling party. The Chief Minister may announce some fresh populist schemes in the budget and seek time till the 2023 Assembly election for implementing them.
This year’s budget session had started on February 9 and the State Budget 2022-23 was presented on February 23. Mr. Gehlot’s astute move to make an early beginning for the budgetary process and call the session ahead of the schedule will leave the Congress’s top leadership with little options in the run-up to the Assembly election due in December 2023.
The political row
Apart from making the sharpest-ever attack on Mr. Pilot, while accusing him of hobnobbing with the BJP leaders during his rebellion in 2020, Mr. Gehlot had expressed confidence last week about repeating the government in the polls on the basis of his welfare schemes. He has also referred to the “Rajasthan model” several times during his election campaign in neighbouring Gujarat and promised its replication in that State.
Despite the Chief Minister’s self-assured stance, the party leaders of his camp in the State are mostly silent, finding themselves in an embarrassing situation. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, a Gehlot loyalist, said any competition among the Congress leaders would only make the ruling party stronger and help it provide good governance to the people of the State.
On the other hand, Pilot loyalist, Murari Lal Meena, Minister of State for Agricultural Marketing, said many of the MLAs who earlier owed allegiance to Mr. Gehlot, had gradually shifted to Mr. Pilot after 2020. He said the legislators of the Pilot camp were willing to participate in a “secret ballot” for making the choice of the Chief Minister.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is set to pass through some of the Gujjar-dominated areas in eastern Rajasthan next month. Amid an apprehension that Gujjars may hold demonstrations or try to disrupt the yatra, Mr. Gehlot’s strategy of presenting the budget before the high command takes a decision on the CM may turn the situation to his advantage, as he will be responsible for fulfilling the budgetary announcements.
