Ahmedabad, 16 June 2013

Last year in October, when Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh reshuffled his cabinet, the Congress MPs of Gujarat were told that two of them who perform best and bring results in the Gujarat assembly elections shall be rewarded and made ministers in future.

Now when, the Prime Minister is likely to make changes in ministry on Monday, will any Congress MP from Gujarat get berth?

Actually, Gujarat results were not well for Congress, and therefore expecting any new berth for Gujarat MP is not fair deal. But just for the sake of discussion, if we look at the list of Gujarat Congress MPs and review their chance to become minister in centre,a list of Congress MPs from Gujarat:Jagdish Thakor, Kunvarjibhai Bavalia, Somabhai Patel, Vikram Madam, Bharatsinh Solanki, Dinsha Patel, Prabha Taviyad, Tushar Chaudhary, Kishan Patel, Ahmed Patel, Pravin Rastrapal and Alkaben Kshatriya. Of them Bharatsinh Solanki, Tushar Chaudhary and Dinsha Patel are ministers. Ahmed Patel doesn’t want to become minister.

Among others is Vikram Madam. His relevance in politics is due to Ahir card that he plays in Jamnagar district, but in assembly elections last year, he couldn’t secure victory of his candidate against powerful Ahir lady Poonamben Madam. It was Vikram Madam because of whom a bright new generation politician Poonamben Madam had to leave Congress and join BJP. Even due to his personal nature and track record, Madam is not considered as minister material.

Another MP from Saurashtra is Kuvarji Bavalia and Somabhai Patel both are relevant in politics due to Koli community card. But they couldn’t cater much to Congress in Koli domain in last assembly elections. BJP continued to win majority of Koli dominated seats. Kunvarji Bavalia himself lost assembly election. Somabhai Patel won and later vacated the seat.His son recently lost by-poll on same seat.

But if Congress decides to make someone from Saurashtra a minister in centre, Kuvarji Bavalia could be picked up.

If it’s about mainland of Gujarat, Jagdish Thakor can expect ministerial berth. During the Gujarat elections, Thakor successfully catered Thakor community votes to Congress. However in recent Banaskantha Lok Sabha by-poll, he wasn’t that successful.

As Tushar Chaudhary has been a minister from South Gujarat and Tribal class, Prabha Taviyad and Kishan Patel have no chance. Alkaben Kshatriya is senior, but she is from Rajya Sabha and doesn’t enjoy mass support. Pravin Rashtrapal is also from Rajya Sabha.