Bhupendra Patel took oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the second time yesterday. Yesterday, 16 MLAs took oath as ministers along with Bhupendra at the Gandhi Nagar helipad ground. The OBC community has the largest representation in the current Gujarat cabinet. Although there were four Patidars, he did not hold back the anger among loyalists for not giving the ministry to the leader of the Patidar movement, Hardik Patel.
On the occasion of yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony, the top leadership of the BJP gathered in Gandhinagar. Virtually most representatives of the Union Cabinet, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were present, as were the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states.
Types of ministers
Out of the 16 MLAs who took the oath with Bhupendra yesterday, 8 are full ministers, six state ministers and two independent ministers. There is only one woman in the new cabinet. Seven people have been appointed from the last cabinet so far. The fact that more than half of the state’s population belongs to the OBC community is reflected in the cabinet. Out of the 17 who took oath yesterday, 7 are from the OBC community. In second place are Patidars or Patels.
Patidars are one of the most economically and politically influential communities in Gujarat. So, a total of four Patidar MLAs including the Chief Minister took oath yesterday. Apart from this, two people and one scheduled caste have been made ministers. One minister each is from Brahmin, Jain and Rajput communities.
There were speculations in the BJP camp about whether the youth legislators will be given more space in addition to choosing representatives according to the equation of different castes in the cabinet this year. Patidar movement leader Hardik Patel, who later joined the BJP, was named in the ministerial race. But at the end of the day, she didn’t tear up his name.
Although the Jain leader, who is close to Amit Shah, was the Minister of State in the last cabinet, this time he has taken oath as the Minister of Independent Charge. In this election, the best result of the BJP was in the Saurashtra region. So, five people got a place in the cabinet from there. Besides, five from South Gujarat and three from North and Central Gujarat have been selected as ministers.
Trinamool in commission to demand investigation in Saket incident
The Trinamool demanded an inquiry before the Election Commission, alleging that the party’s national spokesperson Saket Gokhale was involved in a false case. Yesterday, a delegation of 5 members of Trinamool met the commission and gave a letter regarding this. Apart from the issue of Saket, the Trinamool also drew the commission’s attention to the religious and racist comments made by Assam Chief Minister Himantaviswa Sharma and former BJP MP Paresh Rawal during the election campaign in Gujarat. The Trinamool delegation included Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Rajya Sabha Chief Constable Sukhendushekhar Roy, Mausam Noor and Trinamool Leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien.