Jaipur: Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has appointed 58 prominent leaders of the party and allies in 44 boards, corporations and commissions. Out of these 58 leaders, 6 are those MLAs who had supported the Gehlot government at the time of the political crisis in July 2020. It is being seen as a reward for helping in times of crisis.
The matter of political appointments was long pending in Rajasthan and had become a point of friction in the party as the leader of the dissident group Sachin Pilot was contently demanding for this, Gehlot has fulfilled the demand but after three years and taken this as an opportunity to oblige his loyalists and those who supported him at the time of crisis.
Out of the total of 58 leaders who have been appointed as chairmen and deputy chairmen of these 44 bodies, around 48 are meant to be close to the Gehlot camp in the party. Some of his very close associates like Dharmendra Rathor, Pulkhraj Parashar and Rajiv Arora have been given prominent bodies like Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation, Grievance Redressal Committee and Rajasthan Small Scale Industries Corporation respectively.
Gehlot was very keen to adjust those 19 independent and Congress turned BSP MLAs who are supporting the government for the last three years. He wanted to adjust some of these in last year’s cabinet rejig but could not succeed and only one MLA of this group Rajendra Gurha could make it to the final list of ministers.
Now as there are no berths left in the cabinet Gehlot is trying to adjust this group on various posts. He had to appoint 4 independent MLAs as his advisors and now 6 have been given the chairmanship of different bodies. So now 11 out of 19 have got their reward.
Two of the appointees Dhiraj Gurjar and Zuber Khan are the national secretaries of the Congress and work closely with Priyanka Gandhi. Manvendra Singh Jasol the son of former Bjp leader and central minister Jaswant Singh is also on the list of appointees. Manvendra was also in Bjp but left the party before the last assembly election and contested election as Congress candidate against former CM Vasundhara Raje.
