Raj cabinet expansion to take place today; MLAs to take oath as ministers

The swearing-in ceremony of the state cabinet in Rajasthan will be held today at 3

The development comes as newly elected Chief Minister of Rajasthan Bhajan Lal Sharma met Governor Kalraj Mishra and requested him for the swearing-in ceremony of the Council of Ministers.

Around 18 to 20 MLAs will take oaths as ministers. The faces of some new and experienced MLAs will be included in Sharma's cabinet, per the sources.

In the expansion of the cabinet in Rajasthan, special attention will be given to caste and regional equations, especially keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections to be held after a few months. In the cabinet expansion, care will be taken to ensure that all regions get representation and at the same time, social engineering will be done to ensure that all major castes also get full representation in the cabinet.

At present, Rajasthan has a Brahmin Chief Minister in Bhajan Lal Sharma, while Deputy Chief Ministers Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa are Rajput and Scheduled Caste respectively.

Earlier, Congress took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its failure to form a cabinet in Rajasthan even after 26 days of coming to power.

"Results to Assembly elections in Rajasthan were announced on Dec 3, 2023. It took 12 days (till Dec 15, 2023) for the BJP to announce the CM and two Deputy CMs," Jairam Ramesh said.

He further said, "26 days have gone by and Rajasthan still does not have a Cabinet and Council of Ministers."

Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that due to the delay in the cabinet formation, the governance has come to a standstill.

"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," Gehlot wrote in a post on 'X'.