Trust Gujarat to become the BJP’s testing ground for electoral strategies. The local body elections are scheduled in next few months and the assembly elections are scheduled in 2027.
It has started with the party reorganising its Gujarat cabinet.
As many as 19 new ministers have been inducted. Six from the previous cabinet remain. Bhupendra Patel continues as Chief Minister. However, this is quite unlike previous overhauls where even the top post changed hands.
Prominent changes were prompted by public dissatisfaction, underperforming ministers, and growing regional imbalance. A reset, they said, was necessary before going back to the voters.
The shake-up follows corruption allegations, public protests, and internal unrest. As the editorial observes, in May, Balvant Khabad, son of minister Bachubhai Khabad, was arrested in connection with a Rs 71 crore scam involving bogus payments.
Infrastructure troubles led to protests in North Gujarat and Saurashtra. In Valsad, BJP members sat in potholes and shouted slogans against their own government.
A BJP leader told the media outlet that the reshuffle was a response to this public anger. New faces, he said, were needed to cool tempers and restore trust.
Political analyst Ghanshyam Shah believes the party was forced to act due to rising dissatisfaction. He pointed to infighting, corruption charges, and electoral setbacks that set off alarm bells. In the absence of strong opposition, he noted, BJP workers themselves had begun playing that role.
He added that the Aam Aadmi Party’s win in Visavadar had further shaken the BJP. Despite full cabinet campaigning, the party lost the seat. AAP is now targeting 40 more constituencies.
Further, he said a recent farmers’ protest in Botad also underlined the need for better regional representation. He noted that the BJP treats local body elections as crucial to retaining control in Gujarat.
The new cabinet looks less like a political lineup and more like a carefully curated diversity checklist. There are six Patidars, eight OBCs, three from Scheduled Castes, and four from Scheduled Tribes. Women are also more visible, three this time, up from one earlier.
Saurashtra-Kutch, which had seen fewer ministers in the past, now gets nine (up from five). South Gujarat has six, North gets four, and Central Gujarat retains seven.
Among the new faces: Rivaba Jadeja and Arjun Modhwadia, former Gujarat Congress president, who switched sides and won a bypoll. Also back is Jitu Vaghani, a former BJP state president.
A senior BJP leader admitted the Ahmedabad-heavy leadership was a concern. With both the chief minister and state BJP chief Jagdish Panchal Vishwakarma from the same region, the reshuffle aimed to restore regional balance by spreading out the portfolios.
Vishwakarma belongs to a community that makes up just 1–2% of the population. Meanwhile, the Koli and Ahir OBC communities, especially dominant in Saurashtra, make up 24%.
According to insiders, these groups had shown little enthusiasm after Vishwakarma’s appointment, triggering a correction through the reshuffle.
Younger leaders have also been promoted. Harsh Sanghavi has been named deputy chief minister. The BJP says this will inject fresh energy into governance while balancing experience with new blood.
BJP vice president Govardhan Zadafia told media outlets the reshuffle was aimed at building regional and caste diversity while introducing new faces. He said Gujarat BJP has a culture of offering new roles in both the organisation and government.
The BJP has often used reshuffles to tackle anti-incumbency. In Gujarat, its stronghold for nearly 30 years, this formula has been tested time and again.
As an editorial points out, in 2001, Keshubhai Patel was replaced by Narendra Modi after public anger over the Bhuj earthquake. That same year, the BJP lost 23 of 25 district panchayats, the Sabarmati bypoll, and key cities like Ahmedabad and Rajkot.
Anandiben Patel was replaced after the Patidar agitation. In 2015, the Congress won 22 of 31 district panchayats. Vijay Rupani took over but was removed in 2021 after criticism of the government’s Covid response.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, Bhupendra Patel replaced Rupani. The cabinet was completely overhauled.
The BJP also reworked civic leadership. In 2021, it denied tickets to 80% of sitting councillors. Those over 60 or with more than three terms were benched. Similar tactics were used in Delhi and other states.
At the organisational level, BJP state chief C.R. Patil introduced the “page committee” model. Each worker manages one page of the voter list (about 30–40 voters) to ensure booth-level contact. This helped break records in 2022 and has since been adopted in other states.
The BJP also applied its “no-repeat” strategy in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In both cases, new chief ministers replaced victorious incumbents.
The BJP has now normalised leadership rotation as a way to handle anti-incumbency. However, Gujarat remains the only state where such sweeping overhauls (entire cabinets, even chief ministers) are routinely replaced.
With civic elections due across 15 municipal corporations, 81 municipalities, and hundreds of panchayats, the BJP appears to be sticking to its age-old formula: if change is desirable and necessary, so be it.
Also Read: Caste Wins Over Merit And Credibility In New Gujarat Cabinet https://www.vibesofindia.com/caste-wins-over-merit-and-credibility-in-new-gujarat-cabinet/
