17 new faces as 23 Raj ministers sworn-in

Yash Goyal

Jaipur, December 24

Twenty-three Rajasthan legislators were sworn in as ministers in the Ashok Gehlot government at the Raj Bhavan here on Monday.

Governor Kalyan Singh administered the oath of office to the ministers — 13 as Cabinet and 10 as Ministers of State. Seven Cabinet and 10 MoS are among the 17 first-timers in the government.

Among the Cabinet ministers are BD Kalla, Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, Lal Chand Kataria, Bharatpur’s erstwhile royal Vishwendra Singh, sole minority minister Saleh Mohammad from Pokhran, woman MLA Mamta Bhupesh, ally RLD’s Subhash Garg, former vice-president BS Shekhawat’s nephew Pratap Singh Khachariawas, former Congress whip Govind Singh Dotasarand and Raghu Sharma, Congress MP who got elected from Kekari Assembly seat.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is learnt to have batted for a few faces, among them being Harish Choudhary, Ramesh Chand Meena, Udailal Aanjana, Arjun Bamania, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Sukhram Vishnoi, Ashok Chandana, Tikaram Juli, Bhajan Lal Yadav and Rajendra Yadav.

Several veterans could not be accommodated, main being CP Joshi, Hema Ram Choudhary, Bharat Singh and Dipendra Singh Shekhawat among others.