Mayawati calls Rajasthan cabinet rejig 'a deception' to arrest declining support

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Sunday weighed in on the Rajasthan cabinet rejig, claiming that the shuffling of the Ministers had been done in a bid to 'arrest the declining support' of the people. Mayawati remarked that the Congress had inducted scheduled caste/tribe members in the cabinet, just like they had appointed a Dalit Chief Minister in Punjab, and called the move a 'deception'.

''To arrest the declining support of the people, the Congress made a Dalit chief minister of Punjab and in Rajasthan, some Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe members have been made ministers. This is similar to the expansion of the Union council of ministers by the BJP to project themselves as well-wishers. This is just deception,'' Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi. 

''The Congress has neglected Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. Far from giving him respect and honouring him with the Bharat Ratna, these casteist parties have always neglected and despised him. Then how can these parties be true well-wishers of SCs, STs and OBCs?'' she questioned.

Notably, several of the BSP-turned-Congress MLAs, who helped the Gehlot government come to power, have complained that they have been not given space in the new Cabinet. Owing to this, several boycotted the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

Rajasthan cabinet rejig, 15 new MLAs inducted 

In a major cabinet rejig in the Rajasthan government, 15 MLAs took as ministers on Sunday at a function in Jaipur. The ministers, who were administered the oath by state's governor Kalraj Mishra, include 11 cabinet ministers and four junior ministers. This development comes after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot made all cabinet ministers resign on Saturday and submitted a new list of ministers to the Governor. Of the 15 new ministers inducted into the cabinet, five belong to the Sachin Pilot camp and six from the Ashok Gehlot camp.

MLAs who took oath as Cabinet Ministers:

• Hemaram Choudhary
• Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya
• Shakuntala Rawat
• Govind Ram Meghwal
• Mahesh Joshi
• Ramlal Jat
• Vishvendra Singh
• Mamta Bhupesh
• Tikaram Juli
• Ramesh Meena
• Bhajan Lal Jatav 

MLAs took oath as Minister of State:

• Murari Lal Meena
• Zahida Khan
• Rajendra Singh Gudha
• Brijendra Ola