A protest staged by Rajasthan Minister of State for Forest Sanjay Sharma in support of sanitation workers outside the Municipal Corporation in Alwar on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) created a political storm. The local Congress leaders also joined the protest and clashed with Mr. Sharma’s supporters.

The sanitation workers have been demanding the issuance of appointment letters to the candidates selected in a recruitment drive in 2012. Despite the Rajasthan High Court’s order to the Directorate of Local Bodies (DLB) in 2019 to form a committee and take a decision, the matter has been put on hold.

Mr. Sharma, who represents the Alwar Urban constituency in the State Assembly, extended support to the workers’ demand and joined their dharna at the Municipal Corporation. The municipal authorities had reportedly sought the DLB’s guidance and were about to issue appointment letters to 69 candidates after several months of communication.

Though the sanitation workers’ union had agreed to the appointment of 69 candidates, against the original figure of 329 selected in 2012, the municipal authorities allegedly backed away from the appointments.

The Minister blamed the Alwar Collector and the Municipal Commissioner for the delay and announced that he would not leave the protest site until the workers were issued appointment letters. “I spoke to the Collector, but she said she was not the competent authority to give appointments, as the Municipal Commissioner has been transferred,” Mr. Sharma told journalists.

Tension escalated at Municipal Corporation’s office when the Opposition Congress workers, led by District Congress Committee president Prakash Gangawat, arrived at the dharna site. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party workers, who raised slogans and clashed inside the Municipal Commissioner’s chamber, were pacified by the police personnel.

The protest was called off after about five hours when Additional District Magistrate Yogesh Dagur reached the site with five appointment letters. Mr. Sharma handed over the letters to a representative of sanitation workers and said the appointment letters for the remaining eligible candidates would be distributed during an official event on August 16.

The Congress leaders targeted the BJP government over the issue, saying the bureaucracy in the State had become so powerful that the Ministers were not being heard and MLAs were being ignored. The party leaders said it was the State government’s “biggest embarrassment” that its own Minister was forced to stage dharna against the administration.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said Mr. Sharma’s protest was an open admission of the administrative machinery being “thoroughly corrupt and out of control”. “The BJP government should be ashamed of itself… The Ministers have been reduced to mere rubber stamps. They have been rendered helpless before the system,” Mr. Gehlot said in a post on X.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Singh Dotasra and Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully — representing Alwar Rural in the Assembly — said the Minister’s protest and allegations had raised serious questions over the functioning of the BJP government. “When even a Minister is fed up with the system, on what grounds should the public trust this government?” Mr. Jully asked.