R'than Budget session starts today, an MP to attend as state minister

The 10-day Budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly will begin on Friday. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who also hold the Finance portfolio, will present the first budget of her new government.

Parliamentary Affair Minister Rajendra Rathore said the date for Budget presentation is not yet fixed and will be decided at Business Advisory Committee meeting on Friday.

The Budget session of 14th Assembly will be unique in several ways.
Not only does the opposition comprise of an all-time low of just 37 members in a House of 200, but a member of Parliament will reply to questions from the opposition in the state Assembly.

Professor Sawarlal Jat  who was the state’s Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation and won parliamentary election on a BJP ticket,  will be present in the house in his capacity of a state cabinet minister - and answer the questions.

Senior BJP leaders said Sawarlal has not taken oath as MP because as per a constitutional provision, the government should have at least 12 ministers in the state.

Due to this rider, Sawarlal has not been relieved from the ministry despite his resignation as MLA.

Since a cabinet expansion has not taken place, Sawarlal will reply to all questions related to water resources and irrigation.

In the past also Congress leader Ashok Gehlot was elevated as PWD minister during the tenure of Congress chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur.

At that time, Gehlot was not a member of the House but he replied to the question in his capacity as cabinet minister.

Meanwhile, state Congress party called the meeting of its legislators a day before start of the session.

Initially, Congress won 21 seats but after suspension of one of its legislators Bhanwar Lal Sharma, the party is left with only 20 members.
All the legislators were told that despite being very low in numbers they should make their presence felt and corner the state government over the issue of inflation.
Meanwhile, a meeting of BJP legislators, chaired by Vasundhara Raje, will take place on Friday.

Suspended Congman

Meanwhile the suspended Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma has announced he will raise several issues in the House against the Congress party.

He said he will expose the wrong decisions taken by the previous Congress government in the state.

Sharma was suspended for making insulting remarks against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

On Thursday, Sharma again targeted Rahul saying the top leadership in Congress needs to be changed.

Now Digvijay Singh has also admitted that Rahul lacks leadership skills.