Chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday appointed her long-time loyalist Suman Sharma as chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Women. Raje cleared two more political appointments -Pilani MLA Sunder Lal Kaka as chairman of Rajasthan State Commission for Scheduled Castes and ex MP Gopal Pan cherwal as chairman of Rajasthan State Safai Karmchari Aayog. All three have been accorded the status of minister of state.
The political appointments were awaited for quite some time. Even the Rajasthan High Court had recently questioned the state government for keeping some key posts vacant for too long, like those in the women's commission and the human rights commission, among others. Sharma, who would head the women's commission, has earlier served as president of BJP's women wing.She has been a corporator with the Jaipur Municipal Corporation and was the party's candidate for Jaipur mayor in the 2009 elections.
She had only recently been appointed as the party’s spokesperson because of her communication skills. Sharma is seen as one of the staunchest supporters of Raje and an effective communicator when it comes to defending the chief minister on controversial issues.She has been a regular on TV debates, taking on the Congress for allegations that the CM supported ex-IPL commissioner Lalit Modi. She defended Raje on the alleged mining scam too.
Pilani MLA Kaka is seen as the BJP’s Dalit face in the state. A six-time legislator, Kaka has headed the state SC commission in the past also. He is member of the Assembly’s Committee on Petitions, Committee on Estimates `B’ and House committee.
Likewise, Pancherwal too is the Dalit face of the party . He belongs to Hadoti, which is Raje’s turf. Once a Janta Dal leader, Raje had played a crucial role in him joining the BJP in 2007. He had recently been included in the Bundi committee for organisation polls.
There are still a couple of commissions and boards awaiting political appointments in the state. These include Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission, Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Rajasthan State Commission for Minorities and Rajasthan Information Commission, among others.