Council of ministers reduced by one-fourth; 15 from previous govt dropped

Jitu Vaghani, who was the cabinet minister for education and science and technology and the spokesperson of the government under Patel, is among the prominent faces to be dropped from the new council of ministers. It was during Vaghani’s tenure the new Electronics Policy and the Semiconductor Policy were given shape and the Rs 1.5 lakh crore Vedanta-Foxconn project came to the state.

Similarly, Purnesh Modi, who began as a cabinet minister for roads and buildings, transport and civil aviation also did not find a place. A couple of months before the formal announcement of the 2022 elections, the Roads and Buildings portfolio was taken away from him without an official explanation.

Others such as Kiritsinh Rana, Naresh Patel, Pradip Parmar and Arjunsinh Chauhan also did not find a place in the new regime.

Among the ministers who held independent charge to be dropped include Jitu Chaudhari, who was in charge of Kalpasar and Fisheries, and Manisha Vakil who had the independent charge of women and child welfare.

While Mukesh Patel has been retained as MoS in the new council of ministers (previous MoS of agriculture and energy), Kuber Dindor who was MoS for Higher and Technical Education has been elevated to the cabinet. Other MoS who did not find a place include Vinod Moradiya, Deva Malam, Nimisha Suthar, Arvind Rayani, Kiritsinh Vaghela, Gajendrasinh Parmar and RC Makwana.

Cabinet ministers such as Rajendra Trivedi and MoS Brijesh Merja were not given tickets to contest the 2022 polls.