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New chief for a Board yet to be set up

JAIPUR: Former president of the BJP in Rajasthan, Mahesh Chandra Sharma, has been appointed chairman of the Rajasthan Investment Promotion and Development Advisory Board. He will hold the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

The announcement of Dr. Sharma’s appointment to the yet-to-be-constituted Board came over the weekend on the last day of filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections. Dr. Sharma had been in the race for a party nomination to the Rajya Sabha but the party chose the present State unit president Omprakash Mathur for one of the seats while for the other it re-nominated G.P.Pilania.

Dr. Sharma had been reluctant to leave the post of the party president. Even as the BJP dissidents opposed to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje campaigned openly for his removal both here and in Delhi with the party high-ups, he had stayed put, refusing to notice the movement against him. Finally he quit in January making way for Mr. Mathur, who was till then the BJP general secretary in charge of Gujarat. At the time of his removal Dr. Sharma reportedly was promised a RS seat.

Perhaps Ms. Raje did what she could do for an ally, as there were reports that Mr. Mathur was given a Rajya Sabha ticket against her wishes. The Congress has been critical of the appointment of a large number of persons who enjoy the powers of Ministers as it amounts to sidetracking the norm of restricting the strength of the Council of Ministers to 15 per cent of the total strength of the Assembly.

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