Rebels in Delhi to complain against Gehlot

Rebels in Delhi to complain against Gehlot

The Congress Government in Rajasthan is still not rid of internal bickering, despite the recent expansion of the Ashok Gehlot Cabinet and the series of political appointments that followed it.

One Minister of State and three Parliamentary Secretaries are camping in Delhi for the past two days, waiting to apprise the Central leadership of how they were deprived of their rightful place. Two other Mini-sters also support the rebellion though they have not gone to the Capital.

All of them originally belong to the BSP, which had merged with the Congress after the 2008 Assembly elections to help the latter get a majority in the 200-strong Assembly.

On Tuesday evening, all the rebels met Union Minister for Social Justice and Congress in-charge of Rajasthan Mukul Wasnik in his capacity as AICC general secretary, along with Union Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh.

They claimed that at the time of the Congress-BSP merger, they were promised Cabinet births but only three were made Ministers of State, while the remaining three were accommodated as Parliamentary Secretaries. It is learnt that these former BSP legislators also alleged that they were given unimportant departments and had hardly any powers.

Minister of State for Home Guard Rajender Singh Gudha and Parliamentary Secretaries Ramesh Meena, Ramkesh Meena and GS Malinga are camping in Delhi. The three Parliamentary Secretaries had sent in their resignations to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot when they did not find their names among the new Ministers after expansion on October 16.

Ramesh Meena told The Pioneer that they were not asking for ministerial births but were feeling helpless as nothing had been done in their constituencies during these three years of the Government.

“I had written about 500 letters to Gehlot to start development schemes in my constituency, but did not receive reply for even a single letter. Developmental schemes recommended or suggested by me are gathering dust in the office of the CM,” he said.