Ninety-one new members took their first step inside the Rajasthan Assembly today, marking the beginning of the 12th Vidhan Sabha with the state’s first woman CM, Vasundhara Raje Scindia.Despite the two-day BJP training camp for new MLAs, day one of the new session was all about new beginnings.Nervous first-timers walked up to take their oaths, cheered on by now familiar faces in the grand Vidhan Sabha building. The speaker indulged many, even had tete-a-tete with MLAs wanting to take the oath in Rajasthani or Braj. There were loud cheers for Sanskrit-spouting MLAs as also for those who took their oath in chaste Urdu.And to talk of a grand entry, BSP’s Karauli MLA Suresh Meena chose to ride an elephant to work. The first-timer’s logic was that people should get a feel of ‘‘Dalit liberation’’.The bustle, however, was only the veneer. While the Congress camp managed to put forward a united face after a month of squabbling over new leaders, the BJP government fished for a way to expand its 10-member Cabinet without ruffling too many feathers before the Lok Sabha polls.On the eve of the Assembly session, the Congress high command finally named B.D. Kalla as Leader of Opposition and Narayan Singh PCC chief. Predictably, former CM Ashok Gehlot was not a contender, and the party played to the Jat-Brahmin gallery.Not everyone is happy though, but since ‘‘madam has spoken’’, all voices of dissent have fallen quiet. Scindia, who is constantly being quizzed about her plans to expand her Cabinet has stuck to her line: ‘‘We haven’t really thought about it, maybe after this session.’’
