Several Rajasthan ministers to resign ahead of proposed reshuffle

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will hold a meeting of his current council of ministers on Saturday evening when several ministers are expected to resign ahead of a proposed reshuffle, officials sources said.

The chief minister is expected to meet Governor Kalraj Mishra after the meeting, which was earlier expected to be held at 5 pm but has now been pushed to later in the evening, they said.

The oath ceremony may take place on Sunday at Raj Bhawan, the sources said.

Govind Singh Dotasra, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma have already offered their resignations in writing to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

Earlier Saturday, Gehlot and AICC general secretary in charge for Rajasthan Ajay Maken as well as Pradesh Congress Committee chief Dotasra addressed a Kisan Vijay Diwas gathering. After that, Maken and Gehlot held a meeting at a hotel.

Maken arrived in Jaipur last night and told reporters about the resignation of the three ministers who desired to work for the party.

While Dotasra is the PCC chief, Harish Chaudhary and Raghu Sharma are in charge of the party's affairs in Punjab and Gujarat respectively.

After their resignation, the strength of the Cabinet has reduced from 21 to 18.

Rajasthan can have a maximum of 30 ministers, including the chief minister.

The clamour for a reshuffle had been growing for several months with Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot's camp demanding that his supporters be accommodated in the government.

Apart from Congress MLAs, independents supporting the government and MLAs who defected from the Bahujan Samaj Party to Congress also have expectations from the reshuffle.

Gehlot had recently hinted that a reshuffle will take place soon.