Gandhinagar, October 18 : The cabinet reshuffle has taken place in Gujarat. The BJP government has reshuffled the cabinet under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. According to this reshuffle, Governor Acharya Debavrat administered the oath of office to 25 ministers at the Gandhinagar Raj Bhavan. With this, the strength of the cabinet has now increased to 26.
The reshuffled cabinet has included 19 new faces, including Jamnagar North MLA Rivaba Jadeja. Importantly, she is the wife of famous cricketer Ravindra Jadeja and is known as the young face of the BJP. Rivaba Jadeja got married in 2016 and was praised by Prime Minister Modi for her outstanding work in the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.
Special emphasis has been given to young leadership, women representation and regional balance in this reshuffle. Young leader Harsh Sanghvi has been appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister. He was earlier the Home Minister, now he will look after the Home Ministry along with the Law and Justice Department. He had won in 2022 by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party candidate by over 1 lakh votes.
Before the reshuffle, 16 old ministers were asked to resign. However, 6 of them – Hrishikesh Patel, Kanubhai Desai, Kuanrji Babalia, Prafulla Panseria, Purushottam Solanki and Harsh Sanghvi – have been reinstated in the cabinet.
Social balance has been maintained in the new cabinet. A total of 8 OBCs, 6 Patidars, 4 Tribals and 3 Scheduled Castes have been selected as ministers.
After the expansion, out of the remaining 24 ministers, excluding the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, there are 8 Cabinet Ministers, 3 Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 13 Ministers of State.
This step has been taken in view of the assembly elections to be held in 2027. BJP national president JP Nadda and many senior leaders were present at the swearing-in ceremony.
