10 months after taking charge, Vasundhara Raje to expand ministry

Jaipur, Oct 27: Ten months after taking charge,

Chief Minister

is likely to expand her 12-member council of ministers on Monday.

Arrangements are being made at the Governor's House for the swearing-in ceremony this afternoon, according to a senior official. Governor Kalyan Singh will administer the oath to the new ministers.

Raje was sworn-in as Chief Minister on December 13 after a landslide victory for BJP which bagged 163 seats in the 200-member house. Raje had inducted nine cabinet ministers and three ministers of state on December 20.

Atleast 10 MLAs - G S Tiwari, N S Rajvi, Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, Pushpendra, Surendra Goyal, Amra Ram, Kirann Maheshwari and Vasudev Devanani - are in the race for ministerial post, party sources said.

Raje and Ashok Parnami were holding discussions to decide on the expansion

Till midnight, the chief minister and state BJP president Ashok Parnami were holding discussions to finalise the list of new ministers, they said.

When contacted, Amra Ram, who was minister of state for Home during Raje's first tenure as CM, told PTI that he was summoned to Jaipur for the swearing-in ceremony.

"Whatever post is given to me, I will work for the government," he said. At present, the Cabinet ministers are Gulab Chand Kataria, R S Rathor, Kalicharan Saraf, Kailash Meghwal, Sanwarmal Jat, Prabhulal Saini, Gajendra Singh Khimsar, Yunus Khan and Nandlal Meena. Arun Chaturvedi, Ajay Singh and Hem Singh Bhadana are ministers of state.

PTI