Gujarat portfolio allocation: CM Patel keeps urban development, tourism; Harsh Sanghvi gets home

The BJP on December 8 won seventh straight term in office in Gujarat with victory in a record 156 Assembly constituencies in the 182-member House.

New Delhi, Dec 12: In his second term as the chief minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel has retained Urban Development, Urban Housing Development, Road and Building, Mining, Tourism, Port and Information broadcasting ministries.

MoS Harsh Sanghvi got the Youth and Cultural activities, Home and Transport ministries. Cabinet minister Kanu Desai got Finance, Energy and Petrochemicals ministries.

Cabinet minister Balvantsinh Rajput got the Industries, Small and medium-scale industries ministry.

Cabinet minister Raghavji Patel got Agriculture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Rural Development ministries.

Cabinet minister Mulubhai Bera got Forest and Environment and Climate change ministries.

Earlier, Bhupendra Patel took oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for a second straight term at a star-studded ceremony in Gandhinagar along with a 16-member Council of Ministers, which included one woman, four days after the saffron outfit stormed to power in the state with a historic mandate.

Sixteen other ministers, eight of them of cabinet rank -- the new ministerial team has representation from Patidar, Koli, tribal and Dalit communities -- were also sworn-in after the BJP on December 8 won seventh straight term in office in Gujarat with victory in a record 156 Assembly constituencies in the 182-member House. The Congress was relegated to a distant second spot with 17 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) finished third with win in five segments.

The new entrants include 11 former ministers.

The Council of Ministers has only one woman member - Bhauben Babariya - who was elected from the Rajkot Rural (Schedule Castes) Assembly seat. She has been cabinet rank.

Of these 16 ministers, four belong to the Koli community (Bavaliya, Khabad, Solnaki and Mukesh Patel), three are Patidars (Raghavji, Rishikesh and Praful), three OBCs (Vishwakarma, Parmar and Bera) and two are tribals (Halpati and Dindor).

Sanghavi is a Jain, Desai a Brahmin, while Rajput belong to the Kshatriya community.

Prime Minister Modi, who addressed nearly three dozen campaign rallies across the state, and is widely credited for the BJP's stellar poll performance, congratulated CM Patel and his new team in a tweet.

''Congratulations to Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel on taking oath as CM of Gujarat. I would like to also congratulate all those who took oath as Ministers. This is an energetic team which will take Gujarat to even newer heights of progress'' the PM tweeted after the ceremony.