3 senior ministers to help first-timer Bhajanlal Sharma deal with tricky questions in Rajasthan Assembly

Three senior ministers -- Kirori Lal Meena, Gajendra Singh Khimsvar and Madan Dilawar -- have been asked to field questions from the Opposition.

Jaipur, Jan 17 : At least three senior and experienced ministers would help first time MLA and Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma to deal with tricky questions in the first Rajasthan Assembly session which starts on Jan 19.

Three senior ministers namely Kirori Lal Meena, Gajendra Singh Khimsvar and Madan Dilawar have been asked to field questions from the Opposition on relevant departments allocated to them.

Khimsvar who is the present health minister and a four-time MLA from Lohawat constituency in Jodhpur district, would field questions from Sharma’s Home and Anti-Corruption Bureau departments. He would deal with nine departments which CM heads. The 64-year-old, who was a minister during Vasundhara Raje’s tenure is a poised legislator, whose experience in dealing with problematic questions have been duly considered before handing him these important departments.

Kirori Lal Meena, 72, who is the current agriculture and horticulture minister and also handles rural development, would handle a total of nine departments in the Assembly including the important Information and Public Relations department. An influential Meena leader and MLA from Sawai Madhopur, he has a long experience of being in the House. A six-term MLA, he is also a two term Lok Sabha MP and one-time Rajya Sabha MP. His aggressive stance, clever ripostes and good communication skills have been taken into consideration while allocating him the departments.

Madan Dilawar, 64, MLA from Ramganjmandi in Kota district with strong RSS links, has been a minister in Raje’s tenure. He is currently the minister of Education (School), Panchayati Raj and Sanskrit education. He is a six-term MLA, having won twice from Ramganjmandi and four times from Atru constituency. An organisational man, he had participated in the Ram Mandir Andolan. With a strong Hindutva image, he has spoken out a number of times against Congress leaders.

Other than his own departments, he would deal with questions from at least 12 other departments handled by the CM, personnel department being one of them.

Usually one minister is delegated to answer questions directed at the CM, if the CM is not present in the House or becomes busy with the Budget as they usually keep this important portfolio. In the present government, deputy CM Diya Kuamri is handling finance. Till the past 25 years, when the Chief Ministership rotated between Congress’s Ashok Gehlot and BJP’s Raje, sometimes the questions were dealt with by other ministers, say poll analysts.

Sunny Sebastian, a senior journalist and political analyst, told Deccan Herald that it is unusual that three ministers have been categorically designated to answer questions on CM’s behalf. “Raje and Gehlot usually answered themselves. Sometimes by other ministers. Ministers who are designated to answer have to know the subject well and also answer supplementary questions if need be. Although most answers are prepared by bureaucrats, ministers must go through them before answering in the House. A lot depends on the Speaker if he doesn’t allow difficult questions. Since Bhajanlal is a first time MLA and relatively inexperienced, the Opposition Congress may try to puzzle him and help from these ministers would stand him in good stead.”

Although the Opposition Congress, which has nicknamed this BJP government as a parchi sarkar,(meaning they are being remote controlled from Delhi with a parchi), would try to confuse the government, they do not have many issues to take on the government. “They can question the renaming of Gehlot’s welfare schemes and their continuation. It has been only a month for the new government and there is not going to be much excitement this time,”says Sebastian.