The First Ashok Gehlot ministry was the Council of Ministers of the Government of Rajasthan headed by Ashok Gehlot. It was formed on 1 December 1998 following the 1998 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly election and remained in office until 8 December 2003.
The ministry was initially expanded on 5 December 1998, when 18 cabinet ministers and 13 ministers of state were sworn in. A major expansion on 13 May 2002 added four cabinet ministers and eleven ministers of state, while Hira Lal Indora and Parsadi Lal Meena were promoted from minister of state to cabinet rank.
In January 2003, Gehlot re-inducted Ram Singh Vishnoi and reshuffled several ministerial portfolios. Banwari Lal Bairwa and Kamla Beniwal were designated deputy chief ministers.
Formation Gehlot was sworn in as chief minister on 1 December 1998. At the time, he was a member of the Lok Sabha and president of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee. On 5 December, acting governor N. L. Tibrewal administered the oath of office to 31 ministers at Raj Bhavan, Jaipur. The initial council consisted of 18 cabinet ministers and 13 ministers of state.
May 2002 expansion On 13 May 2002, Governor Anshuman Singh administered the oath of office to 15 new ministers. Govind Singh Gurjar, Ram Narayan Chaudhary, Janardan Singh Gehlot and Madho Singh Diwan were inducted as cabinet ministers. Eleven other legislators were inducted as ministers of state. Hira Lal Indora and Parsadi Lal Meena, who had served as ministers of state since December 1998, were promoted to cabinet rank.
The expansion increased the strength of the ministry to 44 members. Mamta Sharma and Vijay Laxmi Vishnoi were appointed parliamentary secretaries, but were not members of the Council of Ministers.
January 2003 reshuffle In January 2003, Gehlot reshuffled several portfolios. Banwari Lal Bairwa, who held the transport portfolio, received additional responsibility for planning and human resources and was designated deputy chief minister. Kamla Beniwal, the irrigation minister, was also designated deputy chief minister and retained additional charge of revenue.
Ram Singh Vishnoi was re-inducted into the cabinet and assigned agriculture. Govind Singh Gurjar moved from agriculture to panchayati raj. Shanti Dhariwal was assigned tourism, art and culture, while B. D. Kalla received education, medical and health, personnel and administrative reforms. Madho Singh Diwan was assigned women and child development, policy planning and information technology. C. P. Joshi retained public health engineering, ground water, economics and statistics.
Among the ministers of state, Taqiuddin Ahmed received independent charge of local self government. Paras Ram Mordia received additional charge of home, Jitendra Singh was assigned revenue and Habibur Rahman was assigned tourism.
Council of Ministers The table lists each documented appointment or portfolio period as a separate row. The surviving online reports identify all ministers appointed in December 1998 and May 2002, but do not provide a complete portfolio allocation for every minister. Portfolio descriptions are therefore included only where they are explicitly stated in the cited sources.