In the last few weeks, the headlines from Rajasthan have remained grim. The incidents of rapes, gangrapes and POCSO cases have increased. The social security pension of 90 lakh beneficiaries has been stuck for over three months. More than two lakh jobless youths have been waiting for their allowance. And the exports from Rajasthan have contracted by 38% in the April-June quarter.

The uncertainty over the resignation of agriculture and disaster management minister Kirodi Lal Meena has still not been resolved even four months after he, by his own admission, submitted it to Sharma, even as the state has undergone the heaviest monsoon in decades. State law minister Jogaram Patel’s department appointed his son Manish Patel as the additional advocate general. Manish submitted his resignation a month ago, but here, too, there has been no decision so far.

The Rajasthan budget, with its focus on bijli, sadak, paani, may have made some hopeful that the state may get better essential infrastructure soon. However, this is yet to yield such benefits. The condition of roads has meanwhile worsened due to the monsoon rains.

The power cuts have increased and changes have been effected in the electricity bills. The registration for 100 free units has also been stopped. Even Speaker Vasudev Devnani got upset over the Assembly’s high electricity bill and ordered a probe into it.

Sharma’s supporters defend him, saying he is “well-meaning and hardworking”. They also point out that being a longtime party worker, he has no airs like some of his predecessors. However, in the absence of administrative and legislative experience, there are limits to wielding the chief ministerial powers.

There is a widespread perception in Rajasthan political circles that the state is being run by the BJP’s central dispensation and the bureaucrats. Over the last few weeks the Sharma government has undertaken its largest bureaucratic reshuffle, which has drawn criticism for ignoring seniority in a few cases and for continuing with the same faces in some posts appointed by the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government. The BJP had earlier indicated that its new government would move against corrupt officials – the party’s manifesto spoke of a white paper against graft cases allegedly involving the Congress regime – yet this was “stonewalled” by the same bureaucrats who continue to be in crucial positions.

The government’s drift seemed to have found a reflection in the BJP’s performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where the party lost 11 seats, getting just 14 seats. Despite apparent anger among Jats, the party apparently did not mount efforts to douse it despite having a Jat face like Satish Poonia. In the last two elections, the party won all 25 seats.

The BJP’s new state in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agrawal has been striking discordant notes, while its new state unit president Madan Rathore started on a wrong foot by wading into the controversy over new districts. He first said the government will end several new districts created by Gehlot, then took a U-turn before finally saying that commenting on districts was not his job.

The Sharma government constituted a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy CM Prem Chand Bairwa to review the creation of new districts, but it could not take a decision on the issue. Last week, the government replaced Bairwa with education minister Madan Dilawar as the head of the panel.

While the government faced some miffed BJP MLAs in the Assembly, outside the House the party leaders, including Rathore, had to deal with several unhappy workers. “Unlike the past few months, the Assembly used to be a place for humor and wit earlier,” a BJP leader rued. The party has sidelined its key state leaders in the last one year, which has had a bearing on its handling of the Assembly affairs.

Amidst these fumbles, in a bid to brand himself “investment-friendly” and shed the “inexperienced” tag, Sharma has announced an Investment Summit, to be held in Jaipur from December 9-11, for an image makeover. The CM has been leaving no stone unturned to make it a success and paper over the negative headlines.

“If we had a strong leader without a ‘diluted’ identity, he could have perhaps convinced Kirodi to withdraw his resignation and would have stood up for the state in the case of the apex court’s mines judgment,” another BJP leader said. In July, the Supreme Court Constitution Bench upheld the power of states to levy royalty on mines and minerals. It also subsequently gave limited retrospective effect to this verdict. Rajasthan had called for prospective application of the judgment. “UP has a strong CM, hence despite a double-engine party government it wanted a retrospective application of the verdict,” the leader added.

While the question for the BJP ticket hopefuls in the Assembly polls was where to submit their application – with the party then having multiple yet weakened power centers – the question now is, where does the buck stop? Another question doing the rounds is, whether the BJP would have got the mandate if it had declared Bhajan Lal as its CM face.

(This column will appear every Wednesday)