Jaipur:
The Rajasthan government, severely congested by a series of recent controversies, is being revamped. 16 cabinet ministers and 11 junior ministers resigned this afternoon, allowing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to regroup. His brief - made amply clear by the Congress leadership in Delhi - is to win back Rajasthan by presenting a cleaner face. "We decided to quit so the Chief Minister can tell the high command that he still has the team's support," said Shanti Dhariwal, who has stepped down as Home Minister. On the line, say party sources, is Mr Gehlot's own job. The opposition BJP says he has lost the moral right to continue in office.
"These last incidents have put Rajasthan in a very bad light. I believe there is no point in asking the 'mantra mandal' to resign, the government should go ", Leader of Opposition Vasundhara Raje said.
Heading the list of scandals that has undermined the credibility of his government is the disappearance of a nurse named Bhanwari Devi in September. Two Congress leaders - one of them a former minister - have acknowledged to the CBI that they had affairs with her. Mahipal Maderna, who was a minister till last month, was allegedly filmed with Bhanwari Devi; a CD was circulated when she went missing from her home near Jodhpur. Bhanwari Devi was a Dalit; Mr Maderna is a towering leader of the Jat community. That could have prompted the Chief Minister's visit to a hospital in Jodhpur, where Mr Maderna is being treated for the high blood pressure he reported during his interrogation by the CBI.
Other ministers have been entangled in murky affairs - Ram Lal Jat was linked to a woman who committed suicide, Babu Lal Nagar has been accused of corruption in the Food and Civil Supplies ministry, Babu Lal Nagar is being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for favouring certain suppliers in purchasing food items meant for BPL families and Bharosi Lal Jatav has been accused of allowing illegal mining and is being investigated by the police.
Mr Gehlot was also challenged by a police firing in Setpember in Gopalgarh, in which 10 Meo Muslims were killed after clashes with the rival Gujjar community over a disputed piece of land. His Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal defended the firing on the Meo Muslims, politically that has damaged the party for whom the Meos are a crucial vote bank...as are the Jats. What's more damaging, Goplagarh is in Bharaptur, a district that borders Uttar Pradesh, which will vote soon for its next government. The backlash for the Gehlot government was assessed by Sonia Gandhi, who had met with the Chief Minister in Delhi. She had also sent a high-level independent "fact-finding committee" to Gopalgarh - it reportedly indicted Mr Gehlot and senior ministers for their clumsy handling of a volatile situation.