Rajasthan Govt allocates portfolios to new Cabinet; CM Gehlot keeps Home, Finance & IT

After undergoing a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle, the Rajasthan government on Monday allocated portfolios to the rejigged ministers. According to the list, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has retained the departments of Finance, Taxation, Home & Justice, DOP, GAD, Cabinet Secretariat, NRI, IT & Communication, Rajasthan State Investigation Bureau, and DIPR for himself. The Education, Sanskrit Education, and Arts, Literature, Culture, and ASI Department has been handed to Dr BD Kalla who had previously served as the Cabinet Minister for the Department of Energy. 

Further, the Department of Law and Legal Affairs has been handed to Shanti Dhariwal along with Elections, Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development & Housing, and others. Medical & Health has been given to Parsadilal Meena, Agriculture to Lal Chand Kataria, Revenue to Ramlal Jat, Tourism and Civil Aviation to Vishvendra Singh, and PWD to Bhajan Lal Jatav. 

When it comes to Ministers of State (MoS) with portfolios, Ashok Chandna has been given Sports & Youth Affairs, Policy planning, Skills amongst others, Bhanwar Singh Bhatti was been handed Power, and Sukhram Bishnoi has been given Labour in the Rajasthan cabinet. 

Full list of portfolio allocation 

'Tried to give representation to all groups': Gehlot 

Earlier today, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot defended his new cabinet saying that he sought to give representation to persons from all communities. As many as 15 ministers - 11 of cabinet rank and four Ministers of State, were inducted into Gehlot's cabinet on Sunday. Five of the 15 new ministers are from the Sachin Pilot camp, while six are from the Ashok Gehlot group.

"We have tried to give representation to all communities- SC, ST, OBC and minorities in the new Cabinet. We will try to adjust the maximum number of MLAs in different boards and corporations or make them parliament secretaries."

Meanwhile, sources have revealed that several BSP-turned-Congress MLAs, who helped the Gehlot government come to power, have complained that they have not been given space in the new Cabinet. Owing to this, several boycotted the oath-taking ceremony. BSP supremo Mayawati has claimed that the shuffling of the Ministers had been done in a bid to 'arrest the declining support' of the people. She also called the induction of scheduled caste/tribe members in the cabinet a 'deception' comparing it to the appointment of a Dalit Chief Minister in Punjab.

Image: ANI/PTI