Although the number of ministers from Gujarat in the Narendra Modi cabinet 2.0 has gone down, the entry of political heavyweight Amit Shah has increased the heft of Gujarat in the new government considerably. Both PM Modi and Amit Shah, the de facto number 2 in the NDA government, are from Gujarat. Besides Amit Shah, the two other ministers from Gujarat are Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya.
In the last Modi ministry, there were two cabinet-rank ministers from the Gujarat in Arun Jaitley (he moved to another state in the 2017 Rajya Sabha election) and Smriti Irani. In addition, there were four MoS-rank ministers - Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, Haribhai Chaudhary and Jaswant Bhabhor - representing three of the four geographic regions of the state.
In these elections, Smriti Irani contested and won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. She thus ceases to be an MP from Gujarat. Against two cabinet rank ministers in the earlier Modi ministry, Amit Shah will be the only cabinet-rank minister from Gujarat.
Saurashtra given prominence
Parshottan Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya are both from Saurashtra and belong to the influential Patidar community. A section of the BJP’s Patidar vote base had eroded following the 2015 Patidar reservation stir and alleged police excesses on Patidars.
