ANANDIBEN TAKES OATH AS CM WITH 20 MINISTERS
Friday, 23 May 2014 | Nayan Dave | GANDHINAGAR
With the 4,609 days of longest serving Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s era coming to an end, the longest serving Minister Anandiben Mafatlal Patel stepped into his shoes on Thursday. Anandiben, the first woman CM of Gujarat and her compact team of 20 Ministers took oath at 12.39 pm (Vijay Muhurt) at Mahatma Mandir in presence of top BJP leaders and large number of party workers on Thursday.
The former strict school principal, known for her disciplinarian attitude dropped three Ministers of State (MoS) — Parshotam Solanki, Vasan Ahir and Parbat Patel— from Modi Cabinet and included four new faces — Tarachand Chheda, Kanti Gamit, Bachu Khabad and Shanker Chaudhry as MoS. However, the 15th Chief Minister of Gujarat didn’t make any changes in the core team of the Modi Cabinet.
Compared to Modi’s 23-member Cabinet, the 72-year-old leader kept her Ministry even smaller with just 21 members including her. Just like the Modi Government, the new Government is also dominated by powerful Patel community.
Against nine Patel Ministers in the previous Government, Anandiben’s Government has eight members in the Council of Ministers. She made it a point to balance between the sub-castes by giving equal representations to Levua and Kadava Patels. The new Government has maintained three Kshtriya Ministers, one Brahmin, one Dalit, but representation of OBC trimmed down from six to four with Modi and former MoS Liladhar Vaghela, both belonging to OBC, shifted their base to Delhi.
It seems Anandiben has continued to follow Modi strategically and focused on tribal belt to improve party’s position. Against the only tribal Minister in Ganapat Vasava in the Modi Cabinet, Patel has improved the tally of tribal to three by inducting Bachubhai Khabad and Kantibhai Gamit. She has given a berth to Bania community after long time in Gujarat Government with the induction of Tarachand Chheda.
“The only cause of concern for the saffron party is ignorance of Koli community despite having nearly 20 per cent population in the State. Parshotam Solanki was the only Koli face in the Modi Government. However, he has been dropped due to health problem. We would consider this point in near future and induct Koli leaders in the Ministry,” said a senior BJP leader.
The swearing-in ceremony was held in presence of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi. Top BJP leaders including party patriarch LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Subramanian Swamy, Arjun Munda, Gopinath Munde, Sushma Swaraj, Amit Shah as well as BJP ruled State’s Chief Ministers — Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Manohar Parrikar and NDA ally Akali Dal leader and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal attended the function. Besides, Aditya, son of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and film actor Vivek Oberoi also remained present.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/anandiben-takes-oath-as-cm-with-20-ministers.html
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