JAIPUR: Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot will be sworn in as chief minister and deputy chief minister of Rajasthan on Monday.Congress president Rahul Gandhi will also attend the ceremony.
Raj Bhawan officials said that the Congress leaders have sought time for a swearing-in ceremony at 10 am on Monday.
Gehlot said, “On Monday there will be a swearing-in ceremony of the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister after which the cabinet will be constituted.”
Rahul Gandhi tweeted his photo with the ‘two rivals’ on Friday, he chose to caption it: The united colours of Rajasthan! The party soon announced that Ashok Gehlot will be the chief minister with Sachin Pilot as his deputy.
Gehlot was given the charge of Gujarat just months ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections in PM Narendra Modi’s home state where the Congress did not win but nonetheless gave a stiff fight to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He first became the state’s chief minister in 1998, the second time in 2008 and is now set to be sworn in for a third stint.
Gehlot is a graduate in science, a postgraduate in economics and has studied law.After his first proper job in the organisation as NSUI’s Rajasthan president from 1974 to 1979, Gehlot went on to become the Jodhpur City Congress Committee president from 1979 to 1982. Then, he was elevated as the state Congress committee’s general secretary.
Gehlot was first elected to Parliament in 1980, and went on to win Lok Sabha elections four more times. Since 1999, he has represented the Sardarpura assembly constituency, winning five consecutive terms in the House.
Gehlot has served as a minister of state in the ministries of tourism, civil aviation, sports and textiles, in different stints between 1982 and 1993.
In the recent Karnataka assembly polls, he was there in Bengaluru along with Ghulam Nabi Azad to help stitch together a post-poll coalition with Janata Dal (Secular) to form the government.
