Eight-time BJP MLA and former Minister Kalicharan Saraf took oath as the pro-tem Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly in Jaipur on December 18 ahead of the Assembly session in which the newly elected legislators will be sworn in. Governor Kalraj Mishra administered the oath of office to Mr. Saraf at a ceremony in Raj Bhavan.
A panel of three senior MLAs — Dayaram Parmar, Pratap Singh Singhvi and Kirodi Lal Meena — has also been appointed to assist Mr. Saraf. Ajmer North MLA Vasudev Devnani, named by the BJP as the new Assembly Speaker, Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma and Deputy CM Prem Chand Bairwa were among those present at the oath-taking ceremony.
The State Cabinet formation is likely to be done later this week after the MLAs are sworn in. Mr. Sharma, accompanied by his two deputies Diya Kumari and Mr. Bairwa, met BJP national president J.P. Nadda in New Delhi on Sunday to deliberate on the selection of Ministers. The ruling party is expected to take care of caste and regional balances in the appointment of Cabinet members.
Mr. Sharma also called on President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari during his visit to the national capital.
Launch of campaign
The Chief Minister launched the urban segment of the Centre’s ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ in his Assembly constituency, Sanganer, on Monday and announced that the camps would be organised for a population of 25,000 each in all the 276 urban local body areas in the State. He later addressed a meeting of senior bureaucrats at the State Secretariat here.
The new BJP government has cancelled all political appointments made to various Boards, Corporations, Commissions, Task Forces and district-level committees made during the previous Congress regime. While the State government is expected to make fresh appointments to these bodies shortly, the files pertaining to the cases in which there is a legal impediment to the removal of incumbents have been summoned to the Chief Minister’s Office.
