jaipur the congress appeared to get its act right in rajasthan this year after a tumultuous 2020 when deputy chief minister sachin pilot and mlas loyal to him rebelled against the leadership of cm ashok gehlotin late 2021 the cm carried out a crucial part of the truce formula worked out by the central leadership a cabinet expansion and shuffle that seemed to accommodate the two factions in the states ruling congressa property dispute over jai mahal palace and rambagh palace both hotels now that had simmered for years was also sorted outrambagh palace also happened to be the venue of a high profile wedding of nationalist congress party leader praful patels son prajay patel the whos who of politics industry and filmdom landed at jaipur airport on chartered planesanother historical venue in sawai madhopur hosted the wedding of actors katrina kaif and vicky kaushalgehlot dropped three ministers and added 12 new ones in the longawaited cabinet shuffle which happened just when the pilot camp had begun showing signs of restlessness again at least five of the new ministers were seen to be from the pilot camp dalit representation in the ministry too was strengthenedin addition three congress mlas and three independents all considered close to gehlot were made advisers to the cm amid some questions over the legality of the moveone of the six mlas who crossed over from the bahaujan samaj party to the congress earlier and helped gehlot with the numbers to survive the pilot rebellion too was rewarded with a berth in the ministrydays after his appointment a video clip showed rajendra singh gudha purportedly boasting about his game of switching sides another showed him with his foot in the mouth comparing the smoothness of roads with the cheeks of actors hema malini and katrina kaifthe congress did well in the assembly polls held over the year for five seats retaining three and wresting another from the opposition bjp in eight of the 12 districts where panchayat polls took place the ruling party won control over the zila parishad boardswith two years still to go before the next assembly elections the congress also put up a show of strength at a nationlevel rally in jaipur where rahul gandhi slammed hindutvadis and praised hindus party president sonia gandhi and general secretary priyanka gandhi vadra were among the prominent party leaders who showed uppunjab chief minister charanjit singh channi got delayed and turned back from the airportwhile the congress groups appeared to patch up there were concerns in the bjp over factionalism in the state on a visit to the rajasthan bjp president j p nadda even asked party leaders to do some selfintrospection about their contribution to the organisationformer chief minister vasundhara raje undertook two brief yatras one in bharatpur in march and the other in six districts of the mewar region in november though they were supposed to be personal visits to holy places some saw an attempt there to demonstrate her