Rajasthan Cabinet reshuffle: Fifteen ministers to take oath today
Jaipur(PTI): Fifteen new Rajasthan ministers will take oath at 4 pm on Sunday at the Raj Bhavan here as part of the Cabinet reshuffle, officials said.
The ministers include 11 Cabinet ministers and four ministers of state (MoS). The new Rajasthan cabinet will see 12 new faces, including five from the Sachin Pilot camp, in the reshuffle on Sunday.
This is the first cabinet reshuffle of the Gehlot government which came to power in December 2018.
Three ministers -- Govind Singh Dotasra, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma -- have been dropped and their resignations have been accepted by the governor on recommendation of the chief minister while three ministers -- Mamta Bhupesh, Tikaram Jully and Bhajan Lal Jatav-- will be elevated from MoS to cabinet rank.
While Dotasra, Chaudhary and Sharma resigned on Friday, other ministers resigned in a meeting of council of ministers on Saturday.
The resignation of Sharma, Chaudhary and Dotasra was accepted as they hold party positions and the "one man, one post" formula has been applied in the state.
Sharma has been appointed as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Gujarat and Chaudhary as the AICC in-charge for Punjab. Dotasra is the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief.
The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government will have a total of 30 ministers, including 18 who had resigned earlier.
Rajasthan can have a maximum of 30 ministers including the chief minister.
Three ministers of state -- those have been elevated to cabinet rank -- are from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, party sources said.
The new state cabinet will have four SC members and three ministers from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, the sources said, adding that the cabinet will also feature three women -- a Muslim, one from the SC community and a Gujjar.
Among the new ministers to take oath as cabinet ministers are Hemaram Chaudhary, Mahendrajit Singh Malviya, Ramlal Jat, Mahesh Joshi, Vishvendra Singh, Ramesh Meena, Mamta Bhupesh Bhairwa, Bhajanlal Jatav, Tikaram Juli, Govind Ram Meghwal and Shakuntala Rawat.
Those who will take oath as the new ministers of state are Zahida, Brijendra Singh Ola, Rajendra Durha and Muralilal Meena.
Mahesh Joshi is the government chief whip.
Among those from the Sachin Pilot camp who have been included in the ministry are Vishvendra Singh, Ramesh Meena and Hemaram Chaudhary as cabinet ministers, and Brijendra Ola and Murari Meena as ministers of state.
Two of them -- Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena -- were sacked as cabinet ministers during a political crisis in the state last year.
Another SC member, former MP Govind Ram Meghwal, is a fresh face to be included in the refurbished cabinet.
Rajendra Singh Guda, one of the six MLAs who defected from the BSP to the Congress, has also been included as a minister of state.
No independent MLA has been given a ministerial berth, while some of them would be included as parliamentary secretaries.
Some former BSP legislators would also be included as parliamentary secretaries, the sources said, adding that some senior MLAs would be made advisers to the chief minister.
After the Congress won bypolls held on two assembly seats recently, the tally of the ruling party has reached to 108 in the house of 200.
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RSS cautions against using caste census as political tool
New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has expressed caution over the caste census survey, urging that it should not be used as a political tool. While the organisation has not issued an official response to the Union government’s recent decision to conduct caste-based enumeration alongside the upcoming decadal census, sources indicate that the Sangh remains watchful of its implications.
The RSS, which has historically opposed caste-based segregation, supports the idea of sub-categorisation within Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the introduction of a creamy layer—but insists this must be done through consultation and consensus with stakeholders.
This development comes shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Prime Minister’s official residence, a meeting that has drawn attention amid the government’s announcement.
The Sangh has long championed the cause of Samajik Samarasta (social harmony), a campaign aimed at unifying Hindu society across caste lines. It has maintained that caste enumeration should not become a vehicle for political gain. In September last year, RSS chief spokesperson Sunil Ambekar, speaking in Palakkad, Kerala, emphasised that caste-related issues must be approached with sensitivity due to their impact on national unity and integrity.
“Such issues should not be handled based on elections or electoral politics,” Ambekar had said. He added that while collecting caste data for welfare purposes is an accepted practice, it must strictly serve the interests of underprivileged communities, and not be exploited for political advantage.
According to the RSS, it has no objection to caste data collection if it is used for public welfare rather than for fostering political divisions. Observers suggest that this nuanced endorsement has provided the Modi government the ideological clearance to proceed without alienating its traditional support base.
With ground-level implementation already visible in states like Bihar and ideological alignment at the national level, the caste census is poised to significantly influence India’s social policy and electoral strategies. For a nation still striving for equitable representation and social justice, the exercise could supply much-needed empirical data to guide policy decisions.
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