The entire Rajasthan Cabinet resigned today to pave the way for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to carry out a reshuffle after the Congress government was hit by a series of controversies including the mysterious disappearance of nurse Bhanwari Devi.
The Ministers in the Gehlot government gave their collective resignation to the Chief Minister at a Cabinet meeting chaired by him.
"All the ministers took collective decision to submit resignation to show faith and express confidence in the leadership of Ashok Gehlot so that he can strongly can say before the party high command in New Delhi that his team is with him," Shanti Dhariwal, who resigned as home minister, told reporters after the meeting.
He said there was no crisis on the government and Gehlot did not ask the cabinet to resign, but the decision taken by all the cabinet and state ministers was a collective one.
"For a long time, there was atmosphere of uncertainty in politics in the state and there were some directions from the party high command also so we found mass resignation an appropriate step to strengthen Gehlot," Dhariwal said. "Now cabinet reshuffle will take place in near future as per the direction of the high command," he said. When asked what was the need for a mass resignation for a cabinet reshuffle, he said the ministers wanted to strengthen Gehlot's hands and express leadership in their leader (Gehlot) so this course of action was decided.
The emergency meeting was called by Gehlot to discuss the political situation in view of criticism over the alleged involvement of some Congress ministers in the disappearance of 36-year-old auxillary nurse Bhanwari Devi.
Sacked Minister Mahipal Maderna, a key suspect in the Bhanwari disappearance case, was suspended from the primary membership of Congress last Saturday.