Gehlot constitutes his cabinet

Over a week after the Congress ousted the BJP from power in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday constituted his Cabinet, inducting 13 Ministers including two Ministers of State. All the Ministers were administered the oath of office by the Governor S K Singh at a simple function at the Raj Bhavan in Jaipur. Of the eleven Cabinet ministers sworn in two were independents including Parasadi Lal Meena and Harji Ram Burdak who rebelled against the Congress after being denied party tickets and entered the poll fray as independents. Parsadi Lal Meena had won the Lalsot (ST) seat whereas Burdak wrested the Ladnun constituency from BJP's Manohar Singh. Both Meena and Burdak extended support to the Congress along with eleven other independents after the results of the 13th Vidhan Sabha were out on 8th December in which the party was short of six seats for a majority in the 200-member State Assembly. Two other independents who were sworn in as Ministers of State are Golma Devi, wife of former BJP minister Kirori Lal Meena, who won from Mahuwa and Ram Kishore Aini who won the Bandikui seat. The other nine Cabinet Ministers are Aimaduddin alias Durru Miyan, Bharat Singh, Bina Kak, Brijkishore Sharma, Hemram Chodhury, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Mahipal Madrena and Shanti Dhariwal. (ST-19/12) <<<< back