Twenty-two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were sworn in as ministers of the Rajasthan government during a ceremony held at the Raj Bhawan on Saturday. Governor Kalraj Mishra administered the oath of office to the newly appointed ministers, marking the cabinet expansion nearly a month after the Rajasthan election results were declared.
Among the sworn-in ministers, twelve assumed the role of cabinet ministers, five were appointed as ministers of state (independent charge), and five took the oath as ministers of state, news agency PTI reported. The MLAs sworn in include prominent BJP leaders such as Kirodi Lal Meena, Madan Dilawar, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gajendra Singh Khinvsar, Babulal Kharadi, Jogaram Patel, Suresh Singh Rawat, Avinash Gehlot, Joraram Kumawat, Hemant Meena, Kanhaiya Lal Choudhary, and Sumit Godara.
Sanjay Sharma, Gautam Kumar, Jhabar Singh Kharra, Surendra Pal Singh, and Heeralal Nagar were also sworn in as ministers of state (independent charge) during the ceremony. The swearing-in ceremony took place at the Raj Bhawan at 3:15 pm, with Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma seeking and receiving Governor Kalraj Mishra's consent for the event.
Ahead of the ceremony, several MLAs, including Madan Dilawar and Kailash Meena, engaged in discussions with senior party leaders at the BJP office in Jaipur. The cabinet expansion comes after Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma met with the BJP high command in Delhi on Friday.
The results of the Rajasthan assembly elections were announced on December 3, with the BJP securing 115 out of the 199 seats, leading to the appointment of Sharma as the Chief Minister and Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa as his deputies on December 12.
Rajasthan, a state that witnessed two decades of alternating power between Congress leader Ashok Gehlot and the BJP's Vasundhara Raje, witnessed a significant political shift on December 15 when Bhajan Lal Sharma, a first-time MLA, was sworn in as the new Chief Minister, breaking the long-standing pattern. The appointments of Diya Kumari, a member of Jaipur's erstwhile royal family, and Prem Chand Bairwa, a Dalit leader, as deputies added diversity to the state's political leadership.