New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has blamed “work pressure” for a recent tweet by a Cabinet colleague who wants to be “freed” of his portfolios.
On Thursday, MLA Ashok Chandna had tweeted in Hindi: “Honourable Chief Minister, I have a personal request to you, that by freeing me from this cruel ministerial post, the charge of all my departments should be given to Kuldeep Rankaji, because anyway he is the minister of all departments. Thank you.”
माननीय मुख्यमंत्री जी मेरा आपसे व्यक्तिगत अनुरोध है की मुझे इस ज़लालत भरे मंत्री पद से मुक्त कर मेरे सभी विभागों का चार्ज श्री कुलदीप रांका जी को दे दिया जाए, क्योंकि वैसे भी वो ही सभी विभागों के मंत्री है।
धन्यवाद
— Ashok Chandna (@AshokChandnaINC) May 26, 2022
Chandna is the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Skill Development, Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Disaster Management and Relief in Rajasthan.
Reacting to the tweet, Gehlot told reporters Friday that Chandna was under a lot of work pressure. “He must have been tense when he made that statement. We should not take it seriously. I am yet to speak with him,” the Congress leader said of his apparently disgruntled colleague.
From his tweet, it is obvious that the MLA from Bundi is angry with the state bureaucracy and its alleged meddling in ministerial affairs. The man he wants as his successor is Kuldeep Ranka, the principal secretary to the Chief Minister.
Observers believe this dissension – just days before the Rajya Sabha elections in Rajasthan – may not be good for the Congress party.
A week ago, Congress MLA from Dungarpur Ganesh Ghogra sent his resignation to Gehlot in protest against a police case against him.
Incidentally, the BJP is making merry with this public outburst against the Chief Minister. The party’s state president Satish Poonia tweeted that the Congress’s ship was sinking.
He told news agency PTI: “This is an example of the ‘governance’ of the Ashok Gehlot government. It shows the weakness of the party high command. It also shows the influence of bureaucracy over the government.”
BJP MLA Vasudev Devnani said Rajasthan ministers and MLAs “did not have confidence in the Congress government”.
Also read: Congress minister in Rajasthan slams own party govt, asks to be relieved from ‘humiliating post’