Rajasthan: CM Bhajanlal Sharma’s Next Major Challenge Is Cabinet Formation

Jaipur: In a diverse state of Rajasthan, cabinet formation looks like a big challenge for the new chief minister Bhajanlal Sharma as it must be a good balance of different castes and regional representations. The annoyance of major caste groups who were hoping to get prime posts has already come to the fore.

In Rajasthan, major castes like Jat, Rajput, Meena, Gurjar, Brahmin, Dalit and Vaishya want ample representation in the cabinet and the challenge before the party is that it has to balance not only the castes but regions also as the party has to go for general elections in few months from now and regions like Shekhwati in North-West and districts of East Rajasthan are a challenge for the saffron party despite a convincing win in the assembly election. 

Both these regions dominate Jats, Meenas and Gurjars who were hoping to get at least one prime post out of the four announced by the BJP.  

Meena community's protest

The people of the Meena community were seen protesting against the BJP just after the party legislators meeting on Tuesday as they were hoping for a prime post for their leader Kirori Lal Meena who was brought from Rajya Sabha to contest the assembly election.

Representation of major communities in the BJP legislative party is Rajputs 17, Brahmins 12, Jats 12, Dalits 23, Tribals 16, Vaishya 8 and Gurjars 5.

The party has given the posts of CM and one deputy CM to its core vote banks of Brahmins and Rajputs, while the post of the Speaker has been given to its most loyal vote bank of Sindhis. The remaining post of deputy CM has been given to a Dalit, a vote bank that is not very loyal to the BJP but exists in almost every constituency. 

Now Jats, Meenas, Gurjars and Vaishya communities need to be adjusted in the council of ministers which has only 30 berths in Rajasthan including the CM and deputy CMs, so now 27 berths are available and it will be interesting to see how the party balance the caste and regional representation. 

List of ministers to be out soon

As per the official announcement, only the CM and his two deputies will be sworn in on Friday. There is no information regarding the sworning in of ministers as yet. The sources said that the exercise is going on and the list of ministers will be out very soon.