PM confidant picked Gujarat Deputy CM in Cabinet overhaul

Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi (40), on Friday took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister in a major cabinet rejig by CM Bhupendra Patel. Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office to new ministers.

Of the 16 ministers in the outgoing council of ministers, only six, including Sanghavi, have been retained. Besides, the new Gujarat Cabinet has 25 ministers in place of 16 in the previous council.

CM Patel has also inducted cricketer Ravinder Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja and former Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia into the Cabinet. The six ministers who have been retained include Cabinet ministers Kanubhai Patel, Rushikesh Patel and Kunvarji Bavalia and MoS Sanghavi, Praful Pansheriya and Purshottam Solanki.

Sanghavi is the only minister of state to be elevated to the Cabinet rank today. His continued meteoric rise was the hallmark of today’s rejig. Sanghavi earlier became the youngest MoS (Home) in the state at 36 years in 2021. At 40, Sanghavi, a close aide of PM Narendra Modi, is billed as the next Amit Shah of Gujarat politics.

In 2021, when he became the state Home Minister, Sanghavi stepped into the shoes of Amit Shah and Pradipsinh Jadeja, both stalwarts and Modi confidantes. Sources in the BJP said Sanghavi’s emergence was a clear signal of his growing heft in the party and a precursor to his possible CM-ship role in the next state elections in 2027.

The rejig, leaders said, would help to offset the incumbency and inertia in the BJP government of Gujarat. The BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1995 and created history in 2022 by winning 156 of the 182 seats, the highest-ever since the inception of the state. With its 2022 win, the BJP equalled the CPM’s record of seven terms in West Bengal.

25 ministers take oath

• 9 Cabinet ministers
• 3 MoS with independent charge
• 13 MoS

Today’s reshuffle, sources said, is meant to make the BJP battle-ready for the next election when it will seek a record eighth consecutive term in the state.

Patel’s cabinet has 19 new faces with Rivaba taking oath as the MoS. Of these 19, Jitu Vaghani, Manisha Vakil, Ishwarsinh Patel and Naresh Patel have been ministers at some point in the past.