By Japan K Pathak, Gandhinagar, 19 November 2014

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today expanded her cabinet by inducting four new ministers. With this the strenth of Anandiben Patel cabinet is up from 20 to 24(including Chief Minister herself). Four Minister inducted are Mangubhai Patel and Vijaybhai Rupani both as Cabinet Ministers and Parshottam Solanki and Jashabhai Barad as Ministers of State(MoS).

Mangubhai Patel represents Gandevi(ST) seat. Vijaybhai represents Rajkot(West) seat. Parshottambhai is eleted from Bhavnagar(Rural) seat while Jashabhai is elected from Somnath seat.

Details of Mangubhai are available in this article(Click here).

Vijaybhai is party’s state unit general secretary and former Rajya Sabha MP. He is so senior leader and so close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, that his victory in Rajkot(West) by-election is one of the main reasons why cabinet expansion has taken place today.Based in Rajkot, Rupani has played a role of Modi’s organizational task master in Saurashtra region. Rupani also plays role of party’s spokesperson. Time will say whether he will play a role of state government’s spokesperson minister in future in addition to existing two Nitin Patel and Saurabh Patel. There’s no doubt that Rupani will get some important portfolio matching with his seniority, his place of election (Rajkot – the heart of Saurashtra region) and his weight.

Bhavangar Rural MLA Parshottam Soalni who is better known as Koli community leader is back in state ministry. Solanki has been a minister in earlier Narendra Modi government too. However Anandiben Patel dropped her from ministry. It is believed that irregularities in allotment of fishing contracts, weak health, not-enough participation in government activities were some of the reasons why Solanki was dropped. Solanki was obviously upset, however he never expressed it in public. At the same time in communication with party and government leadership he argued that if party could reward Babubhai Bokhiria with cabinet rank for defeating state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia, why he(Solanki) who defeated Shaktisinh Gohil was dropped from the ministry? Solanki had also made argument that if Babubhai Bokhiria who was convicted by lower court could be made cabinet minister, why he(Solanki) was dropped for just alleged scam in allotment of fishing rights? On his lack of active role in government as a minister, Solanki argued that he was genuinely facing health problems and was unwell and therefore was not as active as expected by higher-ups. He had also pointed out that he campaigned actively for party during elections to ensure victory on good number of Koli community dominated seats. He had argued that he was in fact one of the few state leaders who was given helicopter for party campaign. The party when planned to induct Parshottam Solanki’s brother Hirabhai Solanki as minister instead of Parshottambhai himself, to give representation to Koli community, faced opposition from Parshottambhai, as he(Parshottambhai) argued that he(Parshottambhai) is not sure how long he will live due to ill health, while Hirabhai has long life available to become minister. As Parshottam Solanki was dropped from ministry by Anandiben, Koli community which has good dominance mainly in coastal Gujarat seats(and also some inland seats) was unhappy with having only one Koli community minister, that too Minister of State(that too from Bharuch district). A meeting of Koli community was held in Gandhinagar and attended by Solanki himself demanding greater representation of community in state government. On the other hand Congress was eying to please Solanki and Koli community to get more seats in year 2017 assembly polls.

Another MLA inducted to Anandiben Patel cabinet as Minister of State is Jashabhai Barad. He is elected from Somnath assembly seat. Jashabhai belongs to Karadia Rajput community. After Vajubhai Vala was made Governor of Karnataka, there was no leader from Karadia Rajput community left in Gandhinagar enjoying good position in the government. With Dinu Bogha Solanki and Vajubhai Vala’s exit, Jashabhai now fills the gap. Jashabhai, originally a BJP man, left the party with Shankersinh Vaghela in late 1990s as rebel. He later joined Congress with Shankersinh. In February this year, Barad rejoined BJP. He resigned from Somnath seat and contested again to get elected as BJP MLA. Barad was earlier elected from Talala assembly seat Junagadh district. Karadia Rajput and Ahir are two major communities dominating politics of Junagadh Lok Sabha seat. Kolis and Muslims are other factors. Jashabhai has been Chairman of Junagadh district bank and Junagadh Kheti bank. He has been Gujarat Congress’s vice president also.

Some take aways:

-Anandiben can still induct three-four more ministers as prescribed size of her cabinet is 27.
-Ministry expansion should not be seen region wise. It is more about representation to communities in the case of Mangubhai, Parshottambhai and Jashabhai, while in the case of Vijaybhai, its merit that has played a role.
-In every cabinet expansion exercise, number of MLAs stay unhappy. They feel hey have missed chance. The party is in position to make them happy with board/corporation offices that are yet to be announced.
-As of now, no minister has been dropped from the ministry, but changes in portfolios(in Modi style) will be interesting.
-While there’s nothing unexpected in Mangubhai, Vijaybhai and Parshottambhai’s elevation, Jashabhai emerges as real gainer, perhaps because when he left Congress to rejoin BJP, he was promised the post of minister.
-Reshuffling and allotments of portfolios, seniority rank given to Vijaybhai will be interesting developments to see. More interesting than the oath taking function held today morning.