Rajasthan CM’s advisers not to get ministerial status

BJP raises office of profit issue with Governor

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan is finding it difficult to appoint MLAs as advisers to the Chief Minister as well as Parliamentary Secretaries after the Opposition BJP took the issue to the Raj Bhawan through a memorandum. Governor Kalraj Mishra has sought a clarification on the issue of “office of profit”.

The six advisers, appointed after the expansion and reshuffle of the Council of Ministers on November 21, and the Parliamentary Secretaries likely to be appointed shortly may neither get the Ministerial status nor any perks. With this, the Congress is set to face the ire of its legislators who could not be accommodated in the Cabinet expansion, which took it to its full strength of 30.

Those appointed to the position of Chief Minister’s advisers are Congress MLAs Jitendra Singh, Rajkumar Sharma and Danish Abrar, and independent MLAs Babulal Nagar, Sanyam Lodha and Ramkesh Meena. The Congress enjoys support of 12 out of the 13 independent legislators who had shown solidarity with the State Government during last year's political crisis.