Tug-of-war between Raje and Modi over cabinet expansion, says Sudhanshu Mishra

A tussle seems to be on between Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and the BJP national leadership, including Prime Minister Modi. The tussle is over giving Raje a free hand for her Cabinet expansion plans.

Consequently, Raje has been running her government with just an 11-member council of ministers, which is among the smallest for a state the size of Rajasthan. The ministry's size is in accordance with the Constitution, which mandates a minimum strength of 12 for the Cabinet including the Chief Minister. It includes eight ministers of cabinet rank, excluding the Chief Minister, and three ministers of state. Minister for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat continues to hold his portfolio despite being elected to the Lok Sabha from Ajmer in May.

After coming to power in December last year with a historic majority of 163 out of 200 assembly seats, Raje had inducted 12 ministers into her cabinet. However, senior minister Kailash Meghwal had to resign to take over as Speaker of the State Assembly. This forced Raje to retain Jat in the cabinet in the absence of a Cabinet expansion.

After the impressive performance in the Assembly elections and winning all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Raje thought she would be allowed to have a free hand in picking her ministers. However, Prime Minister Modi and his team in the party thought otherwise. They reportedly asserted that those who were experienced leaders, though considered uncomfortable for Raje, should be accommodated.

But Raje, known for her strong opinion about such leaders, put her foot down. Two such names Raje is not in favour of are party veteran Ghanshyam Tiwari, former deputy leader of the Opposition in the last Assembly, and Rao Rajendra Singh, also considered an able parliamentarian.

Meanwhile, relations between Raje and the Prime Minister is said to have turned sour when Modi refused to induct Raje's son Dushyant Singh into his Cabinet, despite her eagerness for the same. Modi's decision was in accordance with his policy of not giving ministerial berths to children of senior party leaders. On the contrary, as an eleventh hour surprise Modi decided to induct Nihal Chand Meghwal instead, as Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilisers.

The situation further deteriorated when Modi extended support to Meghwal and did not ask him to quit even when a Jaipur lower court served show cause notices on him and other accused in a rape case which was closed by the police during the former Congress regime led by Ashok Gehlot. Significantly, the court had then accepted the closure report of the police.

Raje's cronies believe that in the event of the Prime Minister deciding to get rid of Meghwal, in view of the court order, Dushyant stands a bright opportunity to find a berth in the Modi ministry. A section of the BJP also believe that Raje had something to do with the reopening of the case.

In this background the national leadership thought that it would be unwise to give Raje a free hand as she had displayed "arrogance" in the past and has even gone to the extent of threatening to quit the party, sources asserted.

Whatever might be the reason, state BJP leaders believe that in the absence of a fullfledged Cabinet, the government's delivery system will now be adversely affected.

Raje plays power games through i-card

Political games continue to be played through pet schemes. Earlier, the photograph of former CM Ashok Gehlot could be seen on compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs, his government had distributed free of cost. Now Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has gone one step better - icards for beneficiaries of the Bhamashah Scheme. These cards, which come with a bank account number registered in the name of the female head of the family, carry not only Raje's photograph but also a logo akin to the election symbol - lotus - of the BJP printed on them. The card's photograph has been uploaded on the government site. The government now proposes to spend Rs 1.5 crore to distribute these cards. The government has said it proposes to link this card with various benefits such as health insurance, pensions, ration card, scholarships and other benefits.

Named after a noted general of Maharana Pratap, the Bhamashah Scheme was launched in February, 2008 during Raje's previous tenure. It was discontinued by the Gehlot regime in December, 2008. Raje has now relaunched it by releasing its poster on August 15 at a function in Udaipur. She has earmarked Rs 600 crore for the scheme in this financial year.

Clearly, politicians are doing all they can to make sure voters don't forget them. The best way to do that, it seems, is through pet schemes for the people.

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By declaring that he would not contest the Assembly by-election Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot has given a jolt to party seniors. The bypolls are scheduled to be held in Surajgarh, Weir, Nasirabad and Kotah-South. Pilot had announced his decision amid speculation he might contest from Nasirabad assembly seat which is dominated by the Gujjar community, to which he belongs. Despite not contesting he will have to deal with factionalism plaguing the Congress

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Police fail to issue summons to VIPs

Rajasthan police seems to have developed an "expertise" in failing to serve court summons to VIPs accused in criminal cases, notwithstanding their visibility almost on a daily basis. Is it because, as many would like to believe, it suits the party in power?

In the latest instance the police told the court of the additional district judge of Jaipur, P.P. Gupta that the Union Minister of State for Chemical and Fertiliser, Nihal Chand Meghwal, an accused in a rape case, could not be served the summons as he was not found at his Jaipur address. The court had issued summons to the minister and the 17 other co-accused on June 12 in response to a revision petition by a married woman who accused her husband and his friends of sexually exploiting her. She had accused her husband of drugging her and then letting his associates rape her in Jaipur.

The judge on August 20 directed the superintendent of police, Ganganagar, to trace the address of the minister in Raising Nagar in his home district and also find out his Delhi address and serve the summons. Earlier, during the Ashok Gehlot-led former Congress regime the Jaipur police had failed to trace Deputy Chief Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi, IAS, in Delhi to serve court summons in a case for about two years till he got relief from the Supreme Court. He was allegedly involved in illegal allotment of land in Jaipur during his posting in Rajasthan.