Five fresh faces in new Vijay Rupani cabinet

In the 20-member cabinet of Vijay Rupani, there are five new faces. These faces includes a senior leader like RC Faldu and four-time MLA Raman Patkar.

Ishwar Parmar, Kishor Kanani and Vibhavari Dave got their second term as MLA.

Many senior leaders and ministers lost in the recent Assembly polls with the total tally of 99 members in the house. So, BJP was almost pushed to cherry-pick some fresh faces in the Cabinet. MLA from Jamnagar (South) seat and former Gujarat BJP president RC Faldu were lucky enough to secure the berth in the Cabinet this time. Faldu had lost the polls in 2012 elections but succeeded in winning this time when the Patel community was up in arms against the BJP, especially in the Saurashtra region. Faldu was elected as an MLA twice in the past polls held in 1998 and 2002.

Raman Patkar, Scheduled Tribe leader and MLA from Umbergaon seat in Valsad district, is four-time MLA and has been elected again. He waited for a longer time than Ishwar Parmar, Vibhavari Dave and Kishor Kanani. All three have been inducted in Cabinet by Rupani in their second term. Of these three, Parmar was lucky enough to get a cabinet position as no any senior Scheduled Caste leader from BJP could win the polls.