Raj ministry reflects new balance of power; Diya Kumari emerges all-powerful

Jaipur, Jan 7 (IANS) In Rajasthan, the Bhajan Lal Sharma Government distributed portfolios among ministers on the sixth day of Cabinet expansion on Saturday, however, the key topic of discussion was the distribution of six important portfolios, including finance, to Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari.

Altogether, 11 ministers in the new government got powerful departments with big budgets.

The total budget of the Rajasthan Government is over Rs 3,90,000 crore and seven ministers have been assigned departments that have a major share in the pie.

Diya Kumari, who is a second-time MLA, has got the responsibility of the key finance department, which is usually kept by the Chief Minister in Rajasthan.

The budget of the education department is the biggest and its responsibility has been given to Madan Dilawar.

Agriculture and rural development comes in third place, whose minister is Kirodi Lal Meena.

Though, the Sharma Government has tried to create a power balance in the portfolio allocation to ministers, the responsibility given to Dr. Premchand Bairwa is not as heavy as that of Diya Kumari.

After the Home Department, the Finance Department is considered the most important. Chief Minister Sharma has kept the Home Department with himself, while the responsibility of Finance has been given to Diya Kumari.

This department decides the direction and future of the state and the main responsibility of preparing the state budget is vested with it.

The Finance Minister has the privilege of reading the budget in the Assembly and the reason behind giving Diya Kumari this big a responsibility is trust, rather than experience.

However, Diya Kumari's path will not be easy as Rajasthan has a debt of more than Rs 5.5 lakh crore. She will face the challenging task of reducing debt and increasing revenue. After the CM, Diya Kumari will be the key figure in this government.

She has also got the key PWD Department and the responsibility of connecting the far-flung areas of the state with quality roads, improving the existing ones and creating infrastructure in new districts will rest on her shoulders.

The other Deputy CM Premchand Bairwa has been given the transport portfolio which is considered important as it provides revenue and was given a share of Rs 11,500 crore in the last budget. He has also got technical education and higher education portfolios.

Bairwa, who is considered close to Raje, is the main Dalit face of the BJP in Dhundhar and he also has the support of the Sangh Parivar.

Kirodi Lal Meena has got departments like Agriculture and Rural Development. Meena was very vocal against the erstwhile Congress Government and its ministers, protesting on the streets on every issue including the paper leaks. He is a big face of the ST community and hence has been given the responsibility of the key Agriculture and Rural Development.

Madan Dilawar too has got an important portfolio and that is education, which was allocated the maximum amount of about Rs 40,000 crore, in the last budget.

Dilawar is associated with the ideology of the Sangh and it was the Parivar that ensured that he got this responsibility.

Before this, in the BJP, these departments were associated with the Sangh and were with the current Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani.

It was Devnani who raised the issue of ‘Pratap Mahan’ instead of ‘Akbar the Great’ and also made changes in school education. Dilawar has got a good opportunity to live up to the expectations of the BJP through this department.

The first-time MLA, Hiralal Nagar, has got the Power Department and will have to deal with tricky issues like costly electricity and the recurrent power crisis in Rajasthan.

The Power Department has an allocation of about Rs 26,500 crore in the total budget of the state, which is the second-largest share.

Hiralal Nagar is a prominent face of the Nagar caste which is a farming class in Kota district and considered to be the traditional voter of the BJP.

Gajendra Singh Khimsar, who has been a minister twice in the Vasundhara Raje Government, is a senior face in the Cabinet and this time he will be the Medical and Health Minister.

Having administrative experience and being able to deal with the political equations of Marwar, he has been given the Medical and Health Department in order to provide relief to the public.

Khimsar's image is that of a gentle Rajput and the Medical and Health Department comes third in the Rajasthan budget with an allocation of over Rs 22,000 crore.

Handling a department that is facing a shortage of doctors is a big challenge in itself. Providing medical facilities near villages and hamlets in such a large state and improving the condition of government hospitals will also be a steep climb for him.

Rajyavardhan Rathore, a former Union Minister and two-time MP, is another Rajput face of the BJP in Rajasthan. Being a former Army officer and Olympic champion, he has been given departments like youth affairs, sports and military welfare along with industries and information technology.

If there is industrial development in Rajasthan, then the state can reduce unemployment on its own and improve its GDP. It will be a challenge for Rathore to put his plans into action quickly by providing a corruption-free environment to small and big industrial houses and other investors in the state.

Political experts said that though Sharma has tried to balance equations in his new team, the distribution of six key departments to Diya Kumari, particularly the finance portfolio is a significant development. They added, "This speaks big of Diya Kumari and her increasing role in Rajasthan politics."

Meanwhile, the absence of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje from the Cabinet expansion programme as well as from programmes during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Rajasthan on Friday has become a topic of debate in the state.

Political experts said that this can come as a fresh challenge for Sharma.

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