The Bhupendra Patel cabinet in Gujarat was expanded on Thursday with 24 ministers -- all new faces -- inducted, out of which only three have held ministerial posts before.
Ten cabinet ministers, five ministers of state with independent charges, and nine ministers of state were sworn in by Governor Acharya Devvrat at the Raj Bhavan. No minister from the previous Vijay Rupani government was retained.
The new cabinet ministers are Rajendra Trivedi, Jitu Vaghani, Rushikesh Patel, Purnesh Modi, Raghavji Patel, Kanubhai Desai, Kiritsinh Rana, Naresh Patel, Pradip Parmar and Arjunsinh Chauhan. Out of the above, Trivedi, Rana and Raghavji Patel have been ministers earlier.
Trivedi, who was the Assembly Speaker, had quit from his post earlier on Thursday.
New ministers and their portfolios
Harsh Sanghvi, Jagdish Panchal, Brijesh Merja, Jitu Chaudhari, and Manisha Vakil are the new ministers of state for independent charge.
Mukesh Patel, Nimisha Suthar, Arvind Raiyani, Kuber Dindor, Kirtisinh Vaghela, Gajendrasinh Parmar, R.C. Makwana, Vinod Moradia and Deva Malam were sworn in as ministers of state.
Out of the new ministers, seven are from Saurashtra region, six from South Gujarat, three from Ahmedabad, three from north Gujarat and 5 from central Gujarat. There are 8 legislators from the Patidar community, 6 legislators representing the OBC community, three from the Scheduled Tribes, and two each from the Kshatriya community and the Schedule Castes.
Bhupendra Patel was elected the new Chief Minister on Sunday, following the sudden resignation of Rupani a day earlier.
(With inputs from IANS)
