Gujarat Cabinet reshuffle: Harsh Sanghavi sworn in as Deputy CM; Jadeja’s wife Rivaba becomes minister
AHMEDABAD, OCT 17 : The BJP government in Gujarat carried out a cabinet reshuffle on Friday, with state Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister and cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife, Rivaba Jadeja, inducted as a minister.
Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath to 26 ministers, including Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, as each incoming leader held the Bhagavad Gita in hand, an unmistakable symbol of ideological assertion.
The reshuffle blends caste arithmetic, political muscle, and strategic messaging, bringing in 19 new faces while removing several old and Congress-origin ministers. The new cabinet draws heavily on new faces and social balance: seven Patidars, eight OBCs, three Scheduled Castes, four Scheduled Tribes, and three women.
The oath-taking ceremony turned into a display of precise political engineering, signalling both continuity and controlled disruption.
Of the 26 ministers, only six from the old team were retained, while 10 were dropped and 19 inducted afresh, a clear signal that the BJP is scripting a fresh power map ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.
Harsh Sanghavi took the oath first, marking his formal elevation as Deputy Chief Minister, a position held by only five others in Gujarat’s political history. His rise is more than ceremonial; it cements his place as a key power centre in the Bhupendra Patel government and reflects the BJP’s calibrated grooming of its next rung of leadership.
The Chief Minister personally informed the retained ministers, reinforcing their political weight, while BJP state president Jagdish Vishwakarma communicated with the new entrants.
Beneath the smooth transition lies a quiet purge, particularly of original Congress turncoats. Of five such ministers in the previous cabinet, only Kunwarji Bavaliya and Arjun Modhwadia survive.
The rest—Balwantsinh Rajput, Bhikhusinh Parmar, Kunwarji Halpati, and Raghavji Patel—have been removed.
This reset carries historical echoes. Gujarat has seen only five Deputy Chief Ministers since its formation: Chiman Patel and Kantilal Ghiya (1972), Keshubhai Patel (1990), Narhari Amin (1994), and Nitin Patel in the Rupani era. Sanghavi now becomes the sixth, underlining the BJP’s generational transition at the top.
Saurashtra, long a key region in Gujarat’s caste-political matrix, has also seen a tight pruning. Of the five Saurashtra ministers in 2022, only Kunwarji Bavaliya and Parshottam Solanki retain their berths.
Mulu Bera, Raghavji Patel, and Bhanuben Babaria have been cut, making way for Rivaba Jadeja as part of the BJP’s women’s representation strategy. Rivaba’s entry is both symbolic and tactical: it blends celebrity pull with electoral arithmetic in Jamnagar, while simultaneously edging out Mulu Bera.
Jitu Vaghani, former Gujarat BJP president and Education Minister, has made a comeback after being dropped in 2022. His return strengthens the Bhavnagar belt’s stake in the new power equation.
The reshuffle also carries an organisational imprint, with Kaushik Vekaria, known for his internal party influence in Amreli, gaining prominence.
The Sanghavi elevation, coupled with this caste-balanced, politically calibrated cabinet, marks a strategic consolidation by the BJP, merging loyalty, legacy, and fresh optics.
The cabinet reshuffle is as much a political statement as an administrative move, as the BJP lays the groundwork for the 2027 elections.
Notably, Gujarat can have a maximum of 27 ministers (15 per cent of the 182-member assembly), and the BJP aims to fill more of these positions.
The outgoing cabinet comprises 17 ministers, including the chief minister, with eight cabinet ministers and eight ministers of state.
-PTI
