JOIN USThe ministerial reshuffle in the union ministry held on Sunday has proved many political pundits wrong in the state.
The media was agog with the rumours of the induction of Dr Joythi Mirdha or Jat leader and Barmer MP Harish Chaudhary in the ministry in place of Mahadev Singh Khandala who was asked to resign.
But it has proved wrong. However one message that is going out loud and clear is that this time around more than chief minister Gehlot, Union surface transport minister Dr CP Joshi seems heavy over Gehlot as the new entrants Chandrash Kumari and Lalchand Kataria are said to be a part of the Joshi camp in the Congress politics in the state.
This is being interpreted as the growing clout of Dr Joshi who is considered as a competitor to Gehlot in the state.
Dr Joshi missed the chief minister’s chair by a whisker with a single vote defeat in the last assembly election felicitating Gehlot with no competition for the coveted post.
Joshi was credited with bringing back the Congress in the state as the largest single party as the PCC president and is said to be very close to the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The party then fielded him from the Bhilwara parliamentary seat and won with a huge margin. The first time MP was then straightly inducted in to the cabinet in charge of the crucial rural development ministry.
He was then moved in to the ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the last reshuffle. However Joshi may be disappointed as he has not given the railway portfolio which has held as an additional charge.
But Joshi supporters says perhaps the PM wants some continuity in the crucial infrastructure ministry so that he was retained in the present ministry.
Rajasthan got unexpected windfall of another cabinet minister in the form of Chandresh Kumari who represents Jodhpur in the Lok Sabha. Chandresh Kumari belongs to the Jodhpur Royals and has been married in to Himachal Pradesh.
Rajasthan in recent times got the maximum representation in the central cabinet. With the induction of Chandresh Kumari the number of ministers from Rajasthan has gone up to seven, an all time high.
Apart from Joshi who handles the Surface Transport and Highways, it has got another cabinet minister when Anand Sharma was nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan. Though like Chandresh Kumari, Anand Sharma belongs to Himachal Pradesh but he represents Rajasthan in the Rajya Sabha.
With the induction of Chandresh Kumari the Congress leadership hit two birds with one stone.
Congress wants to send out a signal to the election-bound Himachal Pradesh and gave strong representation to the strong Rajput community in Rajasthan.
Besides Sachin Pilot who represents Ajmer Lok Sabha seat has been elevated with a minister of state with independent charge while dropping of the Jat leader Mahadev Singh Kandala was compensated with the addition of another Jat and Jaipur rural MP Lalchand Kataria in the ministry.
Though Jitendra Singh was shifted to sports ministry, Namo Narayan Meena, the former IPS officer, is comfortably straddled in the finance ministry.