New Delhi: Three Patidars, seven OBC leaders, two from the ST community, and one each from the SC, Brahmin, Jain and Rajput communities were among the 16 MLAs inducted into Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s new council of ministers Monday.
Two days after he was chosen leader of the BJP legislature party at a meeting of the newly elected MLAs, Patel and his ministers were administered the oath of office by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The ceremony was held at the Helipad Ground inside the new secretariat complex in Gandhinagar and attended by several Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.
For his council of ministers, Gujarat’s 18th chief minister has enlisted six new faces including a lone woman MLA. The remaining 10 were either part of the earlier Bhupendra Patel, Vijay Rupani or Anandiben Patel administrations.
Of the 16 in the new council of ministers, eight were inducted as cabinet ministers: Rushikesh Patel, Raghavji Patel, Kanu Desai, Balwant Singh Rajput, Kunvarji Bavaliya, Mulu Bera, Kuber Dindor, and Bhanuben Babariya. The new cabinet has two leaders each from the Patidar and OBC communities, and one each from SC, ST, Brahmin and Rajput communities.
Regional equations were also given due consideration, with the new council of ministers comprising five leaders each from the Saurashtra and southern Gujarat regions, and three each from central and northern Gujarat.
Gujarat BJP vice president Gordhan Zadafia told ThePrint that “representation of castes, communities and regions have been kept in mind” vis-à-vis the formation of the new council of ministers.
The outgoing Bhupendra Patel-led council of ministers comprised seven Patidars, six leaders from the OBC community, three from the SC community, four from the ST community, two each from the Brahmin and Kshatriya communities and one from the Jain community.
“The OBCs have been given more representation as the party held several small public meetings in OBC-dominated areas before the polls and the community supported the BJP in large numbers. But if you compare, the Patidars have also been given ample representation. The chief minister himself is from the Patidar community,” said a Gujarat BJP leader.
The BJP returned to power in Gujarat for a seventh consecutive term earlier this month, securing a historic 156 seats in the 182-member assembly.
Also Read: Gujarat BJP leader who jumped in river to save Morbi survivors wins with whopping majority
Patel’s new council of ministers
Sitting corporator in the Rajkot Municipal Corporation and three-time MLA Bhanuben Babariya, who won from Rajkot Rural this time, is the only woman minister in the new council of ministers. A Dalit leader, she was elected to the assembly twice earlier, in 2007 and then again in 2012.
The cabinet also includes Balwant Singh Rajput, who first came into the limelight when BJP fielded him against his once boss, the late Ahmed Patel, in the 2017 Rajya Sabha polls. Chairman of the Gokul Group, Rajput spent over 25 years with the Congress before he joined BJP. He was also considered close to former CM late Madhavsinh Solanki of the Congress.
Kunvarji Bavaliya, meanwhile, defected to the BJP in 2018 and was made water resources minister in the Rupani administration — a position he held until the BJP’s central leadership dropped that council of ministers lock, stock, and barrel. A seven-time MLA, Bavaliya is being groomed by the BJP as the face of the Koli community, alongside Parshottam Solanki.
Fellow Koli leader Solanki, a six-time MLA, also made his way back to the council of ministers.
Another addition to the cabinet is Rushikesh Patel — a Patidar leader from Mahesana district who replaced former deputy CM Nitin Patel as health minister in the earlier Bhupendra Patel administration — besides Mulu Bera, an Ahir leader who defeated the Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial face Isudan Gadhvi in Khambalia by over 18,000 votes.
Apart from Rushikesh Patel, other cabinet ministers retained from the earlier Bhupendra Patel administration are Raghavji Patel, Kanu Desai, Kuber Dindor, Mukesh Patel and Jagdish Vishwakarma. Raghavji Patel was agriculture minister in the earlier Bhupendra Patel administration, while three-time MLA and Brahmin leader Kanu Desai was the minister of finance, and Dindor the minister of state for technical education.
Unlike the first Bhupendra Patel administration, only two ministers were inducted into the council of ministers with independent charge, Harsh Sanghavi, who was junior minister for home, and Jagdish Vishwakarma.
Also inducted to the council of ministers were BJP MLAs Praful Pansheriya, Bhikhusinhji Parmar, Kunvarji Halpati and Bachubhai Khabad, who was minister of fisheries in the Anandiben Patel administration.
An unexpected omission from the council of ministers was that of Jitu Vaghani, Gujarat BJP president during Rupani’s tenure. Known in political circles as “Amit Shah’s man”, he was succeeded by C R Patil.
Prominent leaders of the agitation for Patidar reservation who were elected as MLAs on a BJP ticket, Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor, too, did not find a place in the council of ministers.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Gujarat conquered, all roads lead to Delhi: What’s next for CR Patil, PM’s man behind landslide win