Mumbai: A day after your complete Gujarat cupboard, apart from Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, resigned from the cupboard, the state authorities Friday inducted a brand new council of ministers, increasing the cupboard numbers to 26 from the sooner 17.

The Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), which has received Gujarat seven straight phrases, additionally re-introduced the put up of a Deputy CM in Friday’s reshuffle, elevating Majura MLA Harsh Sanghavi to the put up from a minister of state rank within the earlier cupboard.

These embrace cupboard ministers Visnagar MLA Rushikesh Patel, Jasdan MLA Kunvarji Bavaliya and Pardi MLA Kanubhai Desai. The fourth minister from the outgoing cupboard who will proceed to be a part of the brand new cupboard and who didn’t take oath Friday is Bhavnagar Rural MLA Parshottambhai Solanki, who was a Minister of State of fisheries and animal husbandry within the outgoing cupboard.

General, the BJP authorities determined to retain six ministers from the sooner cupboard. Apart from the 4 who didn’t take oath, this record consists of Sanghavi, who was elevated to Deputy CM, and Praful Pansheriya, who took oath as minister of state. He was a junior minister within the outgoing cupboard too.

The brand new cupboard has elevated illustration of girls, tribal MLAs in addition to MLAs from the Saurashtra area, the place the BJP needs to maintain the rising affect of the Aam Aadmi Get together in test.

Gujarat’s meeting has 182 members and may have a council of ministers of as much as 27 MLAs.

“The brand new cupboard balances each area, caste and group in Gujarat. We’ve got variety of girls MLAs, we’ve sturdy younger below 40 faces like Harsh Sanghavi and Rivaba Jadeja,” Yagnesh Dave, Gujarat BJP spokesperson, informed ThePrint.

Saurashtra in focus, extra girls & tribals

Friday’s cupboard growth is the most important since 2021 when the then CM Vijay Rupani had resigned with your complete cupboard, somewhat over a 12 months earlier than the 2022 meeting polls.

Friday’s reshuffle, sources stated, was making an allowance for the native physique elections in January-February 2026 throughout 15 municipal firms, 81 municipalities, 32 district panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats.

Get together leaders stated, the BJP needed to weed out any sentiment of anti-incumbency forward of the polls, and likewise counter the narrative that the Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) is rising stronger in areas comparable to Saurashtra. In June, AAP’s Gopal Italia clinched the Visavadar constituency in a by ballot, narrowly beating the BJP’s Kirit Patel.

CM Patel’s recent cupboard has 9 faces from the Saurashtra area, together with Bavaliya and Solanki who had been a part of the earlier cupboard too. The outgoing cupboard had 5 leaders from Saurashtra.

In its bid to extend the illustration from Saurashtra, the BJP has additionally introduced again Jitubhai Vaghani, its Patidar MLA from the area. Vaghani, an MLA from Bhavnagar West and a Leuva Patidar, has been the Gujarat BJP president from 2016 to 2020. Vaghani, who led the BJP to victory within the 2017 meeting and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, was a part of the primary cupboard below Bhupendra Patel as a cupboard minister, answerable for training, science and know-how and a spokesperson of the Patel authorities.

He was, nonetheless, dropped after a brand new council of ministers took over following elections and the cupboard was downsized to have simply 17 ministers, together with the CM.

Vaghani was the second individual to take oath Friday after Deputy CM Sanghavi.

The illustration from Saurashtra additionally consists of Jamnagar North MLA Rivaba Jadeja, spouse of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, who joined the BJP in March 2019 and contested the 2022 meeting ballot.

In Friday’s growth, the BJP additionally included Porbandar MLA Arjun Modhwadia, who give up the Congress in March 2024 to affix the BJP. Modhwadia took oath as cupboard minister.

Gujarat’s new cupboard has eight ministers from Different Backward Courses, 4 tribals, three from the Scheduled Castes, two Kshatriyas, six ministers from the Patidar group and one Brahmin and Jain every. Moreover, the illustration of girls has additionally elevated from one within the outgoing cupboard to a few now.

The BJP dropped Rajkot Rural MLA Bhanuben Babariya, who had a cupboard minister rank within the outgoing cupboard. Within the new cupboard, all three girls—Jadeja, Darshana Vaghela and Manisha Vakil—have been inducted as junior ministers.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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Additionally learn: BJP playbook, with a twist: (Virtually) total Gujarat cupboard resigns forward of native polls

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