New Patel ministry balances caste, regional representation

The Bharatiya Janata Party has tried to balance the caste and regional equations with Patidar, Koli, Dalit, tribal, OBC, Jain, Brahmin, and Kshatriya communities getting representation in the new cabinet of second-term chief minister Bhupendrabhai Patel.

Among sixteen ministers, excluding Bhupendra Patel who was sworn in again as Gujarat CM on Monday, six are from the Saurashtra region, three from north Gujarat, four from south Gujarat, and three from central Gujarat.

Speaking to News18, BJP spokesperson Shradhha Rajput said that proper representation has been given to all castes and communities in the newly formed cabinet.

“We believe in the politics of development which will be ensured if there is proper representation from each region. The list of ministers has ensured it,” she said.

In 2021, when the Vijay Rupani cabinet was replaced by the Patel cabinet, six Patidars were included. This had dominant Saurashtra and south Gujarat representation.

Bhupendra Patel’s list of ministers too has representation from Saurashtra and south Gujarat. It is from Saurashtra that Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started the election campaign for his party. Central ministers, especially from Gujarat, were asked to take out rallies in the Saurashtra region.

Sources stated that there will be a further extension of the cabinet whenever required to accommodate different regions and castes. The BJP has won 156 seats out of Gujarat’s 182 assembly constituencies.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by PM Modi, union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh’s CM Yogi Adityanath, Karnataka’s Basavaraj Bommai, Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar, Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Dhami, Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Maharashtra’s Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, and Goa CM Pramod Sawant, to name a few.