Greenhorn Patel.

Bhupendra Patel expands cabinet; 24 new ministers sworn in

Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi resigns ahead of Cabinet berth

Agency Report | Gandhinagar | 16 September, 2021 | 11:40 PM

The Bhupendra Patel cabinet in Gujarat was expanded on Thursday with 24 ministers — all new faces — inducted, out of which only three have held ministerial posts before.

Ten cabinet ministers, five ministers of state with independent charges, and nine ministers of state were sworn in by Governor Acharya Devvrat at the Raj Bhavan. No minister from the previous Vijay Rupani government was retained.

The new cabinet ministers are Rajendra Trivedi, Jitu Vaghani, Rushikesh Patel, Purnesh Modi, Raghavji Patel, Kanubhai Desai, Kiritsinh Rana, Naresh Patel, Pradip Parmar and Arjunsinh Chauhan. Out of the above, Trivedi, Rana and Raghavji Patel have been ministers earlier.

Trivedi, who was the Assembly Speaker, had quit from his post earlier on Thursday.

Harsh Sanghvi, Jagdish Panchal, Brijesh Merja, Jitu Chaudhari, and Manisha Vakil are the new ministers of state for independent charge.

Mukesh Patel, Nimisha Suthar, Arvind Raiyani, Kuber Dindor, Kirtisinh Vaghela, Gajendrasinh Parmar, R.C. Makwana, Vinod Moradia and Deva Malam were sworn in as ministers of state.

Out of the new ministers, seven are from Saurashtra region, six from South Gujarat, three from Ahmedabad, three from north Gujarat and 5 from central Gujarat. There are 8 legislators from the Patidar community, 6 legislators representing the OBC community, three from the Scheduled Tribes, and two each from the Kshatriya community and the Schedule Castes.

Bhupendra Patel was elected the new Chief Minister on Sunday, following the sudden resignation of Rupani a day earlier.

Earlier, expecting a berth in Bhupendra Patel’s new cabinet, the Gujarat state Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi tendered his resignation.

The Gujarat state Assembly secretary D.M. Patel informed about this development and declared the seat of the speaker as vacant.

Trivedi, a legislator from Vadodara, who held the position of speaker in the Gujarat state Assembly, is expected to be included in the cabinet to be formed under the newly appointed Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

It is believed that the Kutch legislator Nimaben Acharya will be temporarily holding the charge of the speaker. Acharya also received a call from the BJP top brass intimating her about her inclusion in the new cabinet, said sources.

As per sources, eight legislators from the Patidar community and six MLAs will be representing the OBC community, two each will be from the Kshatriya community and the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.

There will be three representatives from the Schedule Tribe (ST) and one will be from the Jain community, said sources.