Cabinet expansion likely to soothe concerns of Patels, Kolis, Thakors

First came the Patels, then the Kolis, Thakors and the tribals –– each have been demanding a chief minister from their own community. But Wednesday’s Union Cabinet reshuffle has ensured a representation for all.
While the Thakors got their representation in Debusinh Chauhan, the Kolis got Mahendra Munjpara and the rest of the OBCs in Darshana Jardosh –– the three new faces from Gujarat who were inducted into the Union ministry as ministers of state.

With this, Gujarat now has seven Union ministers in all, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Cabinet ministers Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya, apart from the three new ministers of state.

While two former Patidar ministers of state got promoted to Cabinet rank, the induction of Jardosh, Chauhan and Munjpara as MoS has sent out a strong signal of the party’s strategy for the assembly polls. Significantly, all three new inductees are from the OBC category.

The places from where these candidates hail from is even more significant. While Darshana Jardosh is from Surat and Chauhan comes from Kheda in Central Gujarat, Munjpara comes from Surendranagar in Saurashtra.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had made its spectacular debut in Surat in the recent civic poll, replacing Congress as the opposition and stirring up emotions among the powerful Patidar community, Central Gujarat has traditionally been a stronghold of the Congress at least during the assembly elections. On the other hand, Saurashtra has been always volatile electorally and the Koli community has been clamouring for a chief minister of their own after similar sentiments for Patidar community were aired by Naresh Patel, one of the leading officially “apolitical” Patidar leader recently.

While the elevation of the two Patidar ministers of the state –– Rupala and Mandaviya –– is being read as an effort to pacify the Patels, the induction of OBC ministers across Saurashtra, Central Gujarat and Surat marks the party’s strategy to woo OBC communities in regions where the political fortune of the party is now commanding extra attention.

Munjpara, a first time MP, has been a medical practitioner and comes from the Koli community where BJP has been trying to create its own leadership beyond Purishottam Solanki for sometime now. While the party had inducted Congress heavyweight Kunwarji Bavaliya in 2018, it went on to field Munjpara from Surendranagar and is now making him a minister to replace another former Koli heavyweight from Surendranagar, Soma Ganda, who has a reputation of changing parties as per convenience and was ultimately jettisoned by both.

As for the tribal communities, who held a meeting recently in Gandhinagar to seek a chief minister from their community, Mangubhai Patel a septuagenarian well-heeled BJP tribal leader from Navsari was made the governor of Madhya Pradesh.