New Gujarat cabinet sworn in despite dissent

BHUPENDRA Patel, the new chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat, on Thursday (16) inducted several new faces in his cabinet despite dissent among those who were part of the previous government of Vijay Rupani but got dropped under the new leadership.

Twenty-four ministers were sworn in the new cabinet in the presence of Patel, a first-time member of the legislative assembly, and his predecessor Rupani. Gujarat governor Acharya Devvrat administered oath to the new ministers in Patel’s capital at Raj Bhavan, his official residence in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat.

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Rupani suddenly resigned from his post last Saturday (11) and Patel was sworn in on Monday (13). Gujarat is set to go to elections in December next year.

Among those who were administered as ministers are Kiritsing Rana, Naresh Patel, Rajendra Trivedi, Jitu Vaghnani, Rushikesh Patel, Purnesh Modi and others.

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Harsh Sanghvi, Brijesh Panchal, Jitu Choudhary, Manisha Vakil and others were reportedly sworn in as ministers of state with independent charge.

Rajendra Trivedi, who resigned as the speaker of Gujarat assembly earlier on Thursday, was also among those who took oath as ministers.

Patel’s ministers were supposed to take oath on Wednesday (15) but the event was deferred at the last minute after elaborate arrangements were made at the governor’s house. Sources, however, said that differences over the new council of ministers were possibly the reason for the change of schedule.

Indian home minister Amit Shah, who belongs to Gujarat like prime minister Narendra Modi, met with top BJP leaders like Narendra Tomar and Pralhad Joshi to sort out the issues over the council of ministers and the new cabinet after Patel took oath on Monday.

The BJP has reportedly brought Patel to the forefront to mobilise its Patidar voters. The saffron party had a less than satisfactory victory in the Gujarat assembly elections in 2017 when it won 99 out of 182 seats in the legislature as against the opposition Indian National Congress’s 77.