Ahmedabad: Caste is the single-most important factor in Indian politics, even if the BJP would like us to believe otherwise. And Gujarat has been a notorious laboratory for social engineering and experiments since the party’s conception.
Today, the BJP in Gujarat overhauled its council of ministers, including its cabinet. Of the 16 ministers in the earlier council, only four have been retained. There are 17 new faces in the council.
Certain aspects of the new Gujarat council of ministers stand out, with the most dominant being the fact that the singular factor governing a person’s induction has been caste. The socially influential Patel community walked away with the highest number of berths. Out of the 26-member Gujarat council, eight ministers, including chief minister Bhupendra Patel, are Patels.
Ignoring the Patels could be fraught with risk. The BJP has learned this in the past, with the party having to replace its Patel chief minister Anandiben following a Patel rebellion led by Hardik Patel.
Hardik Patel, who was expecting to be inducted into the council of ministers, has not been considered in the latest reshuffle. After the Patidar agitation, he had joined the Congress but later switched to the BJP.
The Patel ministers now in the Gujarat council of ministers include the chief minister, Jitu Vaghani, Rishikesh Patel (the latter two are cabinet ministers), Praful Panseriya, Kantilal Amrutiya, Kaushik Vekaria and Kamlesh Patel.
That caste has been the only criterion is evident in the fact that senior Patel leader Amrutiya of Morbi had earlier served a prison term after being accused in a murder case.
Earlier, the Bhupendra Patel council of ministers had 16 ministers excluding him. The new council has been expanded to the maximum ministerial size permitted by law. Since Gujarat has 182 MLAs, the council’s size cannot exceed 27 ministers. The new Gujarat council has 26 ministers including the chief minister.
After the Patels, OBCs are the most prominent in the new Gujarat council of ministers. OBCs constitute over 49% of Gujarat’s population. Though larger in number than Patels, who form 15% of the population, Patels are financially stronger, resulting in both communities receiving an almost equal share.
The council comprises eight Patels and seven OBC representatives, reflecting their relative political weight.
Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) make up about 7% and 14.7% of the population respectively. The council of ministers has seven ST and SC faces. It must be noted that there are 13 assembly seats reserved for SCs and 27 reserved for STs in Gujarat.
Jains form about 13.02% of Gujarat’s population. They are a financially strong community. The new council includes a deputy chief minister, Harsh Sanghavi, representing the community.
It must be noted that although Sanghavi was born in 1985 and comes from a wealthy family, he is educated only up to the 8th standard. He is a seasoned politician, and this is his third term in the Gujarat assembly.
Gujarat will have local body elections in the first quarter of 2026 and go to assembly polls in 2027. This council expansion is being viewed in the context of rejuvenating the party ahead of the elections.
As a sub-text, a shift in the party’s dynamics is evident. The BJP is known to keep its cards close to its chest. Now, the party seems to have shed its air of mystery, with names being announced and information about new ministers being leaked. The fact that Bhupendra Patel was expected to submit the new list of ministers to governor Acharya Devvrat late on Thursday suggests that the party was coordinating developments more openly than usual.
In the new cabinet, one new minister, Arjun Modhvadia, is a former Congressman. Another former minister who had earlier been with the Congress, Kunwarji Bavalia, has been retained. Except for these two, all other ministers have a BJP background. Of the ten ministers dropped, two – Balwantsinh Rajput and Raghavji Patel – had a Congress background.
The norm in Gujarat has been that the BJP lures senior leaders from the Congress. They are made ministers but later dropped. This has included Jawahar Chavda, Hakubha aka Dharmendra Jadeja, and Brijesh Merja in the past. Raghavji Patel and Rajput now join this list.
Bavalia is a Koli by caste. A senior BJP leader told vibesofindia.com that Bavalia’s inclusion in the cabinet is more of a compulsion due to his caste and clout. Usually, the BJP does not prefer to give former Congressmen a second ministerial term.
The most notable addition to the council is Riva Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. A mechanical engineer by education, Riva, who is 34 years old, is a first-time MLA. It must be emphasised that not a single woman holds cabinet rank in the new Gujarat council.
Three women – Darshana Vaghela, Manisha Vakil and Riva Jadeja – are all ministers of state. The total women’s representation in the new Gujarat council of ministers is 11.1%.
Two Rajputs and one Brahmin also find a place in the Bhupendra Patel council. The Bhavnagar district in Saurashtra has two ministers: Jitu Vaghani and Purshottam Rupala. Rajkot, the largest and most prominent city in Saurashtra, does not have any representation. Jayesh Radadiya was earlier speculated to get a plum ministerial berth. He has, however, not been accommodated.
His father, who was earlier associated with the Congress, changed parties. Radidya’s co-operative politics, where he is believed to have hobnobbed with some Congressmen, could be reasons the Patel leader was not considered. However, he is close to Union home minister Amit Shah, who calls all the shots in Gujarat. He may be given a good position in the future.
The new deputy chief minister, Sanghavi, earlier groomed by former Gujarat BJP president C.R. Patil, is now also believed to be close to Shah.
Another striking aspect is that from the time Narendra Modi became chief minister in 2001, all political decisions were shrouded in mystery. Even when Bhupendra Patel became chief minister, an announcement was made with no one aware of who would replace Vijay Rupani. However, this time nearly all names were predictable and the media for a change was not proven wrong.
This article originally appeared on Vibes of India and has been lightly edited.