5 ministers,4 parliamentary secretaries inducted in ministry

Jaipur, Dec 24 (UNI) The BJP leadership, buoyed by success at the hustings in Gujarat, today addressed organisational demands in Rajasthan, effecting expansion of Vasundhara Raje Ministry, appointing 3 more parliamentary secretaries and Chairman of the Rajasthan State Khadi Board.

The four-year-old Raje Council of Ministers was today expanded with induction of five ministers.

Governor Shilendra Kumar Singh administered the oath of the office and secrecy to Nathu Singh Gurjar, Ramkishore Meena, Kalicharan Saraf, Nand Lal Meena and Surendra Goyal at a brief ceremony held at the Raj Bhawan here this evening.

Mr Gurjar, Mr Meena, Mr Saraf and Mr Nand Lal were inducted as cabinet minister, while Mr Goyal will be minister of state with independent charge.

Prior to this, the Chief Minister dropped Food and Civil Supply Minister Dr Kirodi Lal Meena and Minister of State for Finance Virendra Meena from the ministry.

While Mr Kirodi Lal Meena's resignation was pending before Ms Raje for some days, she had decided to drop Mr Virendra Meena from the ministry on her own.

Besides the two, Minister of State for PHED Chunni Lal Dhakad also tendered his resignation from the Council of Ministers to take over as Chairman of the Rajasthan State Khadi Board with status and rank of a cabinet minister.

Chief Minister Ms Raje has also decided to appoint three more parliamentary secretaries--Laxmi Narain Bairwa, Joga Ram Patel and Dharmpal Chaudhary.

With this the total strengthen of the council of ministers rose to 29 and number of of parliamentary secretaries in gone up to 5.

Besides the expansion, the portfolios of ministers is also due to be reshuffled and the process would be undertaken by the chief minister in a day or two,BJP General Secretary Gopinath Munde said.

Eds rest pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI