23 ministers take oath in Ashok Gehlot govt

Jaipur: A total 23 ministers comprising 22 from Congress and one from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) took oath in Raj Bhavan here on Monday since the Ashok Gehlot-led government was formed in Rajasthan.

Of the 23, as many as 13 were sworn in as cabinet ministers while 10 took oath as the ministers of state.

The cabinet ministers include BD Kalla, Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, Parsadi Lal Meena, Master Bhanwar Lal Meghwal, Lal Chand Kataria, Raghu Sharma, Pramod Jain Bhaya, Vishvendra Singh, Harish Choudhary, Ramesh Chand Meena, Udai Lal Anjna, Pratap Singh Khachariawas and Saleh Mohammad.

The ministers of state included Govind Singh Dotasara, Mamta Bhupesh, Arjun Singh Bamnia, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Sukhram Vishnoi, Ashok Chandna, Tika Ram Jully, Bhajan Lal Jatav, Rajendra Singh Yadav and RLD’s Subhash Garg.

All the ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Kalyan Singh in the presence of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. Several senior leaders of Congress were present at the occasion.

The oath-taking ceremony took place after 13 days since the Assembly election results were announced in which Congress defeated the BJP.

In the elections, Congress won 53.19 per cent of 47 Assembly seats and the BJP 27.65 per cent of seats. Although Congress did not reach the majority mark, it formed the government with the support of RLD, Bahujan Samaj Party and Independents.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]