By Correspondent, Gandhinagar:  Gujarat Governor O P Kohli today administered oath of office and secrecy to Vijay Rupani as the 16th chief minister of the state.

Nitin Patel took oath as deputy chief minister while seven other cabinet ministers including a completely new face in the form of Jamjodhpur MLA of the ruling BJP Chiman Saparia were also administered oath of office.

The speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly during Anandiben Patel government Ganpat Vasava and Atamaram Parmar, who resigned yesterday have also got cabinet rank.

Mr Rupani took oath at 1239 pm, a timing which was chosen by the then CM Narendra Modi for his oath takings. The timing is termed by astrologers as Vijay Muhurta.

16 ministers of state also took oath among which eight were new faces. Only one woman minister has been inducted in the new council of ministers. Two of the ministers of state from the Anandiben Government Dilip Thakor and son of MP Vitthal Radadia, Jayesh Radadia have been elevated to cabinet rank.

Several stalwarts of the Anandiben government including three cabinet minister Saurabh Patel, Mangubhai Patel and Ramanlal Vora and six state level ministers with former minister of state for home Rajni Patel and Anandiben confidante woman minister Vasuben Trivedi have been dropped from the council of ministers of Rupani government. However, it is understood that Mr Vora, a dalit leader, is likely to be the new speaker. Mr Mangubhai Patel, a tribal leader from South Gujarat is likely to be taken back to the party organization. The other four ministers (state rank) of the last government dropped today are Chhatrasinh Mori, Govind Patel, Kantibhai Gamit and Tarachand Chheda.

Going by the list of minister it is clear that BJP National President Amit Shah who was himself present in the oath taking ceremony held at Mahatma Mandir here has emerged as the shah (king) in the selection of ministers as well. After getting Rupani selected for the top post allegedly despite tough opposition from the outgoing CM Mrs Anandiben Patel, who had resigned on August 3, he has completely dominated the ministers selection process as well.

Meanwhile, union finance minister Arun Jaitley, Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister (also incumbent Loksabha MP from Gandhinagar) L K Advani, BJP general secretary (organization) Ramlal, Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khhattar, Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, Jharkhand Raghuvar Das, union ministers Thavarchand Gehlot, Harshvardhan, Pursushottam Rupala and other eminent political figures were also present on the occasion. Mrs Anandiben Patel also attended the ceremony.

 Caste wise maximum eight minister are from Patel community (3 cabinet and 5 state ranked) and region wise maximum 10 were from Saurashtra (from Which CM Rupani himself comes). The name of cabinet and state level ministers who took oath today including the chief minister and deputy CM with their assembly segments to understand the caste and regional dynamics is as following-

Chief Minister – Vijay Rupani (Rajkot West)

Deputy CM – Nitin Patel (Mahesana)

Cabinet – Bhupendrasinh Chudasama (Dholka), Ganpat Vasava (Mangrol), Chimanbhai Saparia (Jamjodhpur), Babu Bokhiriya (Porbander), Atamaram Parmar (Gadhda), Dilip Thakor (Chansma)] Jayesh Radadia (Jetpur)

State rank- Shanker Chaudhary (Vav), Pradipsinh Jadeja (Vatva), Jayanti Kavadia (Dhrangdhra), Nanu Vanani (Katargam), Purshottam Solanki(Bhavnagar rural)] Jashabhai Barad (Somnath), Bachubhai Khabad (Devgadh Bariya), Jaidrathsinh Parmar (Halol), Ishrar Patel (Ankaleshwar), Vallabh Kakariya (Thakkarbapanagar), Rajendra Trivedi (Ravpura), Keshoji Chauhan (Deodar), Rohit Patel (Anand), Vallabh Vaghasia (Savarkundala), Nirmalaben Wadhvani (Naroda- only woman minister) and Shabdsharan Tadvi (Nandod) (Last 8 names new faces).

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DeshGujarat