One woman among 22 ministers:- A total of 22 newly-appointed ministers --12 cabinet ministers and 10 ministers of state, including one woman -- took oath in Rajasthan on Saturday, 15 days after Bhajan Lal Sharma was sworn-in as the Chief Minister.

Manju Baghmar, the MLA from Jayal Assembly constituency, was the sole woman legislator who took oath as a minister of state on Saturday.

The cabinet also includes Diya Kumari in the rank of Deputy Chief Minister.

Springing a major surprise, BJP candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT from Karanpur constituency was also administered oath.

The election to this seat is scheduled on January 5. Congress candidate from this seat Gurmeet Singh Kunnar passed away and hence election was postponed. Congress has given ticket to his son playing sympathy card.

Meanwhile, the new cabinet reflected social engineering equations and gave chance to all regions and communities. Reflecting the balance of old and new, the new cabinet in fact brought experinced and new faces from tribal, SC, ST, Jat, Rajput, Brahmin and OBC, ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

The cabinet includes Kirodi Lal Meena, Gajendra Singh Khinvsar, Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore, Babulal Kharadi, Madanlal Delawar, Jogaram Patel, Suresh Singh Rawat, Avinash Gehlot, Joraram Kumawat, Hemant Meena, Kanhaiyalal Chaudhary from Malpura and Sumit Godara.

The ministers of state are Sanjay Sharma, Gautam Kumar, Jhabar Singh, Surendra Pal Singh TT, Heeralal Nagar, Otaram Dewasi, Manju Baghmar (woman), Vijay Singh Chauhary, KK Vishnoi and Jawahar Singh Bedam. IANS/SP