Gandhinagar:

In the grand swearing-in ceremony of the sixth consecutive BJP government in Gujarat, Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel were administered oath of office and secrecy as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively by governor O P Kohli along with 8 other cabinet rank ministers and 10 ministers of state (MoS) here in the Sachivalaya ground amid presence of a galaxy of leaders including PM Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah, a number of union ministers, CMs/DyCMs of 18 NDA ruled states.

Rupani also broke a long standing myth of sorts by taking oath at 1135 hrs instead of 1239 hrs which was being used as a so-called Vijay Muhurta on earlier occasions since the time of the then CM Narendra Modi and was also used by Rupani last time and his predecessor and Modi’s successor Anandiben Patel.

An attempt to make a balanced caste and regional equation is reflected in the new council of ministers. Among those who have taken oath today in all six were Patidar and as many OBC, 3 Kshatriya Darbars, two tribal,one Dalit and one Brahmin was included. There was only one woman in the council with none in the cabinet. Some of the expected faces including last time ministers like Rajendra Trivedi, Vallabh kakadiya have not been included but as there was still a scope of inclusion of seven more ministers in the council, they were likely to be taken-in during the expansion.

Five of the cabinet ministers including Nitin Patel were of Patidar community. The only Patidar community MoS was Kishor Kanani, who has won convincingly from Paridar dominant Varacha road seat of Surat busting the toll claims of PAAS leader Hardik Patel who had tried tooth and nail to ensure his defeat on the seat.

Region-wise 3 cabinet ministers and as many MoS were from Saurashtra-Kutch (only one from Kutch), 2 cabinet and 3 MoS from South Gujarat and 4 cabinet including DyCM and as many MoS were from North and Central Gujarat.

A total of 8 new faces have been made ministers (4 cabinet and as many MoS) this time around.

The detailed list with caste, seat and some other important details was as follows-

Vijay Rupani- (Second consecutive term, Jain, Rajkot West Seat of Saurashtra),

Nitin Patel ( Second consecutive term as DyCM, biggest Patidar face of the government,Mahesana seat of North Gujarat)

Cabinet Ministers-

1 R C Faldu ( New Minister, Patidar, Former Gujarat BJP president, Jamnagar South seat of Saurashtra)

2 Bhupendrasinh Chudasma ( Also last time minister, Kshatriya, Dholka seat of N Gujarat)

3 Kaushik J Patel ( New Minister, Patidar, won on former seat of Amit Shah, Naranapura, understood to be close to PM Modi, earlier MLA from Dariyapur seat)

4 Saurabh Patel (New Minister, Patidar, Was minister earlier on, relative of Ambanis, Botad seat of Saurashtra)

5 Ganpat Vasava (Also last time minister, Tribal, Mangrol seat of S Gujarat )

6 Jayesh Radadiya ( Also last time minister, Patidar, Son of Porbandar MP Vitthal Radadiya, Jetpur seat of Saurashtra, also become youngest cabinet minister again)

7 Dilip Thakore ( Also last time minister, OBC, Chanasma seat of N Gujarat)

8 Ishwar Parmar (New Minister, Dalit, Bardoli seat of S Gujarat, become the prominent Dalit face owing to the defeat of several big leaders of the community this time)

MoS-

1 Pradipsinh Jadeja (Also last time minister, Kshatriya, Vatva seat of Ahmedabad)

2 Parbat Patel (Also last time minister, OBC, Tharad seat of N Gujarat)

3 Parsottam Solanki (Also last time minister,OBC, Bhavnagar rural seat of Saurashtra on which he had defeated Shaktisinh Gohil of Congress last time)

4 Bachchu Khabad (Also last time minister, OBC, Devgadh Baria of Central Gujarat)

5 Jaidrathsinh Parmar (Also last time minister, Kshatriya, Halol seat of C Gujarat)

6 Ishwar Patel (New Minister,OBC, Ankleshwar seat of South Gujarat)

7 Vasan Ahir (New Minister promoted from the post of Parliamentary secretary in the last government, OBC, Anjar seat of Kutch)

8 Vibhavariben Dave (New Minister promoted from Parl. Sec in the last govt., only woman, Brahmin, Bhavnagar seat of Saurashtra)

9 Ramanlal Patkar (New Minister, tribal, Umbergam seat of S Gujarat)

10 Kishor Kanani ( New Minister, Patidar, Varachha road seat of Surat)

The swearing in ceremony saw the presence of many big wigs including Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, UP CM Yogi Adiyanath. Former CM Keshubhai Patel and Shankersinh Vaghela were visible on the main stage and were greeted by the PM who on his arrival had first went on the adjoining stage made for saints to take their blessings. Veteran BJP leader and local BJP MP L K Advani, union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Ramvilas Paswan, Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi were also seen on the stage.

DeshGujarat