CHIEF MINISTERS OF RAJASTHAN | RAS EXAM

 INTRODUCTION

The Chief Minister is the chief executive of the state. He/she is appointed by the Governor of the state for five years. Its tenure is subject to no term limits.

Rajasthan has witnessed 13 Chief Ministers till now since the formation of the state in 1949. Out of which there has been only one female in the list of the Chief Minister.

The position of Chief Minister remained vacant during the President rule. The Rule of President was imposed four times in the state of Rajasthan:

• First – 13 March 1967-12 march 1962 (42 days)
• Second – 29 August 1973 -22 June 1977 (3 years 10 months)
• Third – 16 march 1980 -6 June 1980 (100 days)
• Fourth – 15 December 1992 – 4 December 1993 (11 months 20 days)

CHIEF MINISTERS:

1. Pandit Hira Lal Shastri (7 April 1949- 5 January 1951)

• He was the 1^st Chief Minister of Rajasthan. He is held as ‘Inaugural holder’ of the CM position in the state.
• His political party was Indian National Congress (INC).
• In 1929, he founded ‘Jeevan Kutir’ in Banasthali village to train social workers.
• He joined Rajya Praja Mandal in 1937 where he was elected twice as General Secretary and President. He also led Praja Mandal’s Satygraha in 1939.
• Later, he was appointed as a General Secretary of the ‘All India States Peoples Conference’ and got elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1947.
• He played major role in integration of princely states into one administration – Rajasthan.
• A commemorative postage stamp was issued by the Indian Posts & Telegraphs Dept. in November 1976 in his honour.

2. S. Venkatachar (6 Jan – 25 Apr 1951)

• He became 2^nd Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
• He served as CM for the very short period of time after the resignation of Hira Lal Shashtri.
• He was from Indian National Congress (INC).
• In 1951, he was appointed as the Secretary to the Minister of States of the Central Govt. and for five years (1953-1958) he remained the Secretary to the first President of the country – Rajendra Prasad.
• The collection of his major work was edited by K.M Acharya and S. Sapru and later published as ‘Witness to the Century’.

3. Jai Narayan Vyas (26 April 1951- 3 March 1952 & 1 Nov 1952- 12 Nov 1954)

• He was elected twice as Chief Minister.
• He was from Jodhpur.
• He was a leader of Indian National Congress.
• In the honor of him, Jai Narayan Vyas University in Jodhpur was named after his death.

4. Tika Ram Paliwal (3 March 1952- 31 Oct 1952)

• His political party was the Indian National Congress.
• He was also an activist in Indian independence movement.
• He served as a cabinet minister under the governance of Jai Narayan Vyas and later, himself became the CM of the Rajasthan.
• In 1952 & 1957, he was MLA from Mahuwa and in 1962 elected from the constituency of Hindaun for Lok Sabha as an independent candidate.

5. Mohan Lal Sukhadia (13 Nov 1954- 13 March 1967 & 26 April 1967- 9 July 1971)

• Mohan Lal Sukhadia was the 5^th Chief Minister of the Rajasthan.
• He belonged to the Indian National Congress.
• He served this post for the longest period in the history of Rajasthan politics.
• He became the youngest CM of the Rajasthan at the age of 38 years.
• He brought major developments & reforms in the state and thus popularly known as the ‘Founder of modern Rajasthan’.
• Sukhadia’s government passed the ‘Rajasthan Zamindari and Biswedari Abolition Act’ due to which title of land got transferred to the tenants and land reforms were successfully implemented. He also put efforts into the development of education and health sectors.
• He also served as a Governor of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• He played an important role in the ‘Quit India’ movement of Mahatma Gandhi.

6. Barkatullah Khan (9 July 1971- 11 Oct 1973)

• He was associated with the Indian National Congress political party.
• In 1972 he was elected to the state assembly from Tijara, Jodhpur.
• He died during his tenure of work.

7. Hari Dev Joshi (11 Oct 1973- 29 April 1977, 10 March 1985- 20 January 1988 & 4 December 1989- 4 March 1990)

• He was elected thrice as a Chief Minister of the state.
• A freedom fighter and a politician of Indian National Congress.
• He was also made Governor of Assam and Meghalaya.
• Two institutes – Haridev Joshi Government Girl’s College in Banswara and Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass bCommunicationin Jaipur were named after him as a mark of respect.

8. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (22 June 1977- 16 Feb 1980, 4 March 1990- 15 December 1992 & 4 December 1993-29 November 1998)

• He became CM for three times.
• For the first two times, he was a member of the Chhabra (Rajasthan Assembly constituency) and third time, Bali.
• He was popularly known as ‘Rajasthan ka ek hi Singh’ (The only Lion of Rajasthan) or ‘Babosa’ (Head of the family of Rajasthan).
• In 1973 he became MP of the Rajya Sabha as an independent member and joined the BJP in 1980.
• He was served the position of 11^th Vice-President (V.P.) of India from 19 Aug 2002 – 21 July 2007.
• Shekhawat was the first non-congress CM of the state and first Vice-President of the country from BJP.
• In 2003, he was awarded ‘Padma Bhushan’ for his great work.
• He played a significant role in abolishing ‘Sati Pratha’ (practice) from the state especially among the Rajputs.
• ‘Antyoday Yojna’ scheme was started by him to uplift the poorest of the poor.
• The World Bank’s Chairman, Robert McNamara called him ‘Rockefeller of India’.
• Shekhawat was a very good and powerful administrator also. He had good control over the police and the bureaucracy. He also got involved in the designing of policies for the state so that tourism, industrialisation and literacy could be improved in Rajasthan.

9. Jagannath Pahadia (6 June 1980- 13 July 1981)

• He was a leader of the Indian National Congress political party.
• He was the first Dalit CM of the state.
• He held the position of Governor of Bihar and Haryana.
• He was born in Bhusawar (presently known as Bharatpur) Rajasthan and died on 19^th May 2021 due to COVID-19.

10. Shiv Charan Mathur (14 July 1981-23 February 1985 & 20 January 1988- 4 December 1989)

• His political party was the Indian National Congress.
• He was appointed as the Governor of Assam in 2008-2009.
• He held various positions in his political career and the important ones are as follow:

➼ Member of All India Congress Committee.

➼ Member of Third Lok Sabha (1964–1967).

➼ Member of Tenth Lok Sabha (1991–96).

➼ Chairman of Committee on Privileges, Lok Sabha (1991–96).

➼ Convenor of Sub-Committee on Energy, Lok Sabha (1994–96).

➼ Minister for PWD, Power, Education, Public Relations, Rajasthan Cabinet (1967–72).

➼ Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Dairy and Planning, Rajasthan Cabinet (1973–77).

➼ Member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.

➼ Chairman of Public Undertakings Committee, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (1980–81).

➼ Convenor of the Rules Committee, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (1985–87).

➼ Chairman of the Subordinate Legislation Committee, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (1987–88).

➼ Member of the Executive Committee, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (1994–96).

➼ Chairman of the Estimates Committee, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (1998–2003).

➼ Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission Rajasthan (1999–2003).

➼ Member of the Rules Committee, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (2004).

11.Hira Lal Devpura (23 February 1985- 10 March 1985)

• Hira Lal Devpura was the 11^th Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
• Among all the Chief Minister’s of Rajasthan, the tenure of service of Hira Lal Devpura is the shortest. He became the CM for 15 days only.
• He was a leader of the Indian National Congress political party.

12.Shri Ashok Gehlot (1 December 1998- 8 December 2003, 12 December 2008- 13 December 2013 & 17 December 2018-till date)

• He is the political member of Indian National Congress.
• He is the current Chief Minister of Rajasthan and had held this position twice before.
• Before becoming the CM of Rajasthan, he was appointed as the Union Minister in 1984 and 1991.
• At present, his official status is the ‘Head of Government’.
• Since 1999-till date, he is a member of the (Sardarpura) Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.
• Gehlot was born on 03 May 1951 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
• Positions held by him in his political career:

➼ President, Rajasthan NSUI (1974-1979).

➼ President, City District Congress Committee, Jodhpur (1979-1982).

➼ General Secretary, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (1982).

➼ Deputy Union Minister for Sports (07 Feb 1984-31 Oct 1984).

➼ Union Minister of State for Tourism & Civil Aviation (31 Dec 1984-26 Sep 1985).

➼ President, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (1985-89, 1994-97, 1997-99).

➼ Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha (1980-1989 and 1991-1999).

➼ Union Minister of State for Textiles (21 June 1991-18 Jan 1993).

➼ General Secretary of All India Congress Committee (2004-08, 2017-2019).

13. Smt. Vasundhara Raje (13 December 2003- 11 December 2008 & 13 December 2013- 16 December 2018)

• She is from Bhartiya Janta Party and the only female to serve as the CM of the state.
• She has become the CM of the Rajasthan for two times.
• She represented Jhalrapatan (Rajasthan Assembly constituency).
• Her Major works include Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra, iStart Rajasthan, Jal Swavlamban and Bhamashah Yojana.
• She had a great contribution in rendering the services towards women – self-empowerment and thus in 2007, UNO awarded her ‘Women Together Award’.
• Raje is the acting queen of Dholpur as she is the head of the Dholpur royal family.
• A book titled ’Vasundhara Raje aur Vikasit Rajasthan’ written by Vijay Nahar, a Historian and published by Prabhat Prakashan was written on the life of Smt. Vasundhara Raje.
• In 1984, she entered politics and held different positions in her political career:
• Member of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly for four years (1985-1989) and from 08 Dec 2003-till date.

➼ In 1987 she became the Vice-President of BJP.

➼ From 14 Nov 2002-14 Dec 2003 she was the President of BJP.

➼ Since 11 Jan 2019-till date, she is serving as the National Vice-President of BJP.

➼ Member of Library & Consultative Committee, Ministries of Commerce & Tourism (1990-1991).

➼ Member of Library & Consultative Committee, Ministries of Commerce & Tourism (1990-1991).

➼ Joint Secretary of BJP (1997-1998).

➼ Minister of State for External Affairs (19 Mar 1998-12 Oct 1999).

➼ Union Minister of Rajasthan (13 Oct 1999-08 Dec 2003).

➼ Member of Lok Sabha (1989-2003).

➼ Leader of Opposition, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (02 Jan 2009-08 Dec 2013).