Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Harsh Rameshbhai Sanghavi was sworn in as Gujarat's deputy chief minister on Friday, a day after all 16 ministers in the state, except Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, resigned for the cabinet reshuffle.
Apart from Sanghavi, BJP's Swaroopji Thakor, Pravenkumar Mali, Rushikesh Patel, Darshna Waghela, Kunvarji Bavaliya, Rivaba Jadeja, Arjun Modhwadia, Parshottam Solanki, Jitendra Waghani, Praful Pansheriya, and Kanubhai Desai were also sworn in as ministers.
The oath-taking ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar in presence of Governor Acharya Devvrat and CM Patel.
Sanghvi becomes Gujarat's 6th deputy CM
With this, Sanghvi has become the sixth person to become Gujarat's deputy CM. The first deputy CM of Gujarat was Congress leader Chimanbhai Patel, who served in the office from March 1972 to July 1973. Along with Patel, Congress' Kantilal Ghia also served as Gujarat's deputy CM during the same period under the then Chief Minister Ghanshyam Oza.
The third deputy CM was BJP leader Keshubhai Patel, who served in the office from March 1990 to October 1990 under the then CM Chimanbhai Patel. Interestingly, Patel also rose to become the state's chief minister and served in the office from March 1995 to October 1995 and then again from March 1998 to October 2001.
From February 1994 to March 1995, Congress leader Narhari Amin served as deputy CM under the then CM Chhabildas Mehta. Later, BJP leader Nitinbhai Patel served as deputy CM in the Vijay Rupani government from August 2016 to September 2021.
Who is Sanghvi?
Sanghvi was first elected to the 182-member Gujarat assembly in 2012 from the Majura seat. He retained his seat in the 2017 Gujarat elections. In the 2022 assembly polls, he defeated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate PVS Sarma by more than 1.16 lakh votes to retain his seat again, following which he was made the Minister of State for Home Affairs in Gujarat.
