The Bhajanlal government has not yet officially accepted the resignation of Cabinet Minister Dr Kirori Lal Meena, who announced his resignation to a news channel after failing to fulfil his claim of winning all 7 Lok Sabha seats he was responsible for in Rajasthan.
A media adviser to the BJP government told SNS that there was no official declaration of Meena’s resignation and that they were all watching a video clip.
However, Meena had not been attending his office and privileges for the past month, though he attended a video conference with the Chief Minister late last month.
Since Wednesday, Meena has not attended the assembly session. On Thursday, the CMO distributed his departmental responsibilities for responding to questions in the assembly to Otaram Devasi, MoS for Rural Development and Calamity Management, Agriculture and Floriculture, Panchayati Raj, and Jan Abhiyog Nirakaran, and to K K Vishnoi, MoS for Industry, Commerce and Youth Affairs.
For the last month, Meena has been active on his ‘X’ posts, consistently quoting a verse from the Ramcharitmanas on his ‘X’ account: “Raghukul reeti sada chali aayi, pran jaye par vachan na jaye.”
At noon, Meena also posted a picture with Chief Minister Sharma alongside a poster for the ’82 Prakatya Mahotsav’ starting on Thursday in Jaipur’s Mansarovar area.
In his reaction to Meena’s resignation, PCC President Govind Singh Dotasara said, “BJP leaders, including Kirori, have been heard alleging that LS tickets were sold to candidates without their consent, and the PM had given them the responsibility to win on these seats. How was that possible? Kirori openly said at a rally he was given a slip by the PM to win on 7 seats.”
“This marks the beginning of the Bhajanlal government, which was constituted on a slip, to change another slip now. What will be its next face, we have to wait and watch. Over the past seven months, Kirori was not given an appointment by the BJP high command, leaving him frustrated as his official duties and portfolios did not meet his expectations. From what I know closely, Kiroriji is very honest and true to his words,” the PCC chief remarked.
It is worth mentioning that among the seven seats for which Meena had taken responsibility, the Dausa seat holds prominence. Meena himself was made in-charge of the Jaipur Rural seat. Apart from these, he was also responsible for the Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur-Karauli, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, and Kota seats.