The chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who also holds the finance portfolio, is not the only one who is involved in all the budgets tabled in her tenure.

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Giving her company is Praveen Gupta, a 1995 batch IAS officer, who has played a key role in carving all five budgets of her tenure in his capacity as finance secretary. Gupta is the only high profile member in Raje budget team, who survived through her tenure in all-powerful finance department. He survived even when there were talks of huge differences between his immediate boss Prem Singh Mehra. Both Mehra and Gupta were considered close to Raje.

And the CM, despite being well aware about their differences, continued with both the officers till she rewarded    Mehra with the coveted post of Rajasthan’s election commissioner, making amendments in rules to accommodate his candidature.Election Commissioner’s post till then was reserved for an ACS rank officer but Raje government tweaked rule to make Mehra, a Principal Secretary level officer, also eligible for the post. After Mehra, another Raje’s confidante ACS DB Gupta was entrusted with heading the finance department.

The designing of budget was a big challenge for both DB Gupta and Praveen Gupta for producing a budget document which not only woos electorates but also looks promising.