24 new faces as ministers in Bhupendra Patel's Gujarat cabinet
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Gandhinagar: Twenty four ministers, including former Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi and former state BJP president Jitu Vaghani, were sworn in as Gujarat ministers on Thursday.
No minister from the earlier Vijay Rupani-led ministry was inducted. Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath to 10 cabinet ministers and 14 ministers of state, including five ministers of state with independent charge.
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.
Harsh Sanghvi, Jagdish Panchal, Brijesh Merja, Jitu Chaudhari, and Manisha Vakil are the new ministers of state for an 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 the 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.