To battle anti-incumbency, allegations of Covid-19 mismanagement and assuage Patel sentiments, all the 22 ministers who were in Vijay Rupani’s Cabinet were dropped by new Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. Among those who were dropped was Deputy CM Nitin Patel, a powerful Patel leader, who was in the race for the post of CM. He may raise the banner of revolt in the coming weeks. Of the 24 new MLAs who were inducted in the Bhupendra Patel Cabinet, 10 were given Cabinet designation, five Ministers of State with Independent charge, while the remaining nine were appointed as Ministers of State.
The swearing-in ceremony of the Cabinet of Bhupendra Patel’s government was held at Raj Bhavan on Thursday and was attended by former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, BJP state president C.R. Patil, BJP national leader and Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, national leader B.L. Santosh, Protem Speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly Dr Nimaben Acharya, former ministers Dandak Pankajbhai Desai, as well as senior additional chief secretary to the state government, front secretary, director general of police, MLAs, BJP leaders and well-wishers. At present, where there is only one woman MLA in the Cabinet, two women have been included as ministers. There is anti-incumbency against the BJP government and all faces are new to overcome that phenomenon.
According to BJP sources, around 30 ministers-MLAs are extremely annoyed with the “no-repeat principle” and are determined to “go to any lengths” to “avenge” themselves. Most of them are those who came to BJP from the Congress. Kunwarji Bavaliya has come out openly on this issue. The party leadership is being warned that ifthe Koli community is insulted, “we will see in the elections”. Vijay Rupani and C.R. Patil have been given the responsibility of damage control.
For the first time since 2014, the BJP central leadership faced difficulty in finalizing the Cabinet in the state due to strong dissension from the ministers who were dropped and other senior state leaders whose interests were “sidelined”. The original oath-taking was scheduled for Wednesday, but it was postponed to Thursday as party in-charge and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav faced angry MLAs and leaders.
The Speaker of Gujarat Assembly, Rajendra Trivedi, who resigned minutes before the swearing-in ceremony, was included as a Cabinet minister. Sources aware of the matter told The Daily Guardian that such was the intense level of activity and balancing of interests, that at the last minute, the names of MLAs Dushyant Patel and J.P. Kakadiya were withdrawn and the name of Purnesh Modi from Surat West forwarded to the Raj Bhavan. Caste wise, in the Bhupendra Patel Cabinet, there are seven Patidars or Patels, six OBCs, four tribals, three Dalits, three Kolis (EBCs), one Rajput (Darbar) and one Brahmin. President Ramnath Kovind is also from the Koli caste.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, BJP was narrowly able to cross the majority figure of 92 s eats—it got 99—as Patidars in the Saurashtra region aggressively voted against the party following the Patel agitation led by Hardik Patel. The party’s electoral capital was further damaged by demonetization and GST, with traders and industrialists in Saurashtra region openly campaigning against what they had called the “anti-traders” policies. The BJP was able to retain power due to the support that it got from voters of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat.
Later on Thursday, Bhupendra Patel kept the portfolio of the Home Ministry along with several other departments, while Kanu Desai was made the Finance Minister. Apart from Home, the CM also holds the portfolios of Administrative Reforms and Planning, Housing and Police Housing, Information and Broadcasting, Capital Planning, Urban Development and Urban Housing, Industry, Mines and Minerals, Narmada, Ports and other departments that are not allotted to any Cabinet Ministers.
CABINET MINISTERS AND THEIR SEATS
Bhupendra Patel, Ghatlodiya (CM)
Rajendra Trivedi, Rawapura
Jitu Vaghani, Bhavnagar West
Hrishikesh Patel, Visnagar
Purnesh Modi, Surat West
Raghavji Patel, Jamnagar Rural
Kanubhai Desai, Pardi
Kirit Singh Rana, Limbdi
Naresh Patel, Ganadevi
Pradeep Parmar, Asarva
Arjun Singh Chauhan, Mahemdavad
MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)
Harsh Sanghvi, Majura
Jagdish Panchal, Nicole
Brijesh Merja, Morbi
Jitu Chaudhary, Kaprada
Manisha Vakil, Vadodara
MINISTERS OF STATE
Mukesh Patel, Olpad
Nimishaben Suthar, Morwa Hadaf
Arvind Raiani, Rajkot
Kubersinh Dindor, Santrampur
Kirtisinh Vaghela, Kankrej
Gajendrasinh Parmar, Prantij
R.C. Makwana, Mahuva
Vinu Mordia, Katargam
Deva Malam, Keshod