Amidst the political excitement of Bihar Assembly elections, BJP is busy in improving its strongest fort Gujarat. Except Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, all 16 ministers of Gujarat government tendered their resignation on Thursday. Now on Friday, the cabinet will be formed in a new way and Governor Acharya Devvrat will administer oath to the ministers.
BJP top leadership before Diwali Gujarat The cabinet of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is going to be reshuffled and expanded. In this swearing-in ceremony, all the big leaders of the party including BJP President JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and General Secretary Sunil Bansal will participate.
Gujarat is considered the political laboratory of BJP, where BJP’s absolute rule has been in place for the last 30 years. Even after this, BJP is once again going to form the Gujarat Cabinet in a new way like in 2021. In such a situation, the question arises that why did BJP need to do political surgery in Gujarat or is it trying to do some new political experiment?
1. Political laboratory of Gujarat BJP
In Gujarat, BJP has been doing many successful experiments from time to time, moving away from traditional politics and it has also been getting political benefits from it. BJP’s ‘No Repeat’ formula was the biggest hit. By removing the old faces and fielding new faces, it has been spoiling the entire mathematics of the opposition. To deal with the anti-incumbency wave in Gujarat, BJP has tried this formula several times in its ‘laboratory’.
A year before the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2021, BJP had removed the entire cabinet including the Chief Minister. BJP had spoiled the entire equation of Gujarat by changing the entire government. In the 2022 assembly elections, BJP had created history by winning 156 out of 182 seats in Gujarat. Now BJP is again trying to perform political surgery on the Gujarat government two years before the 2027 elections.
2. Political surgery of BJP in Gujarat?
Gujarat is the home state of PM Modi and Amit Shah. BJP first came to power in Gujarat in 1995, after which it is in power till date. BJP for three decades Narendra Modi Is contesting elections on the name and work of. In this way, the 2027 elections are linked to the credibility of BJP as well as the prestige of PM Modi. In such a situation, BJP does not want to take any political risk. This is the reason that two years before the elections, the Gujarat government tried to do political surgery.
In 2021, BJP changed the entire government led by Vijay Rupani. From the Chief Minister to all the ministers, all the ministers were removed in one fell swoop and new CMs were made ministers. Many ministers in the Rupani government were very old, due to which they were not politically active. Apart from this, there were allegations of corruption against many ministers. In such a situation, the BJP leadership changed the entire government and presented the image of the government in a new form.
Now BJP is again trying the same trick, but this time neither changing the CM nor removing all the ministers. Among the new ministers appointed in 2021, Hrishikesh Patel, Kanubhai Desai, Kunwarji Bavaliya, Balwant Singh Rajput, Harsh Sanghvi and Prafulla Panseria can be given a place in the cabinet by promotion. Apart from this, by giving place to many new faces, it can present the image of a different government.
3. Plan to win municipal elections
Bhupendra Patel By doing political surgery in the government, BJP is making a strategy to win the urban body elections to be held in 2026 before the 2027 assembly elections. BJP faces the challenge of maintaining its political dominance in these elections. Elections will be held in many municipal corporations from Ahmedabad to Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot. In Gujarat, since the beginning, BJP is still stronger in urban expansion than in rural areas, hence BJP does not want to suffer any loss in these elections.
BJP has removed CR Patil from the post of state president in Gujarat and handed over the command of the state organization to Jagdish Vishwakarma. Vishwakarma was till now the Cooperation Minister in the Bhupendra Patel government. Before the upcoming civic elections, the BJP high command wants to lay a political base by taking a decision to change the organization from the government.
BJP has suffered a political setback due to the loss of Banaskantha seat of North Gujarat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the victory of AAP’s Gopal Italia on Visavadar seat in the recently held by-election. To deal with this, BJP is planning to strengthen its political fort in Gujarat so that it can stop the growing political influence of Congress and Aam Aadmi Party in time.
4. Bet to stop the influence of AAP-Congress
After being out of power in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party has focused its attention on Gujarat while Congress is active only after 2024. Rahul Gandhi has visited Gujarat five times in the last 6 months. Congress is trying to strengthen its organization at the grassroots level so that it can return to power in 2027.
Rahul Gandhi had recently assured the district and city presidents of Gujarat Congress that I am sitting for you and promised that he will visit every assembly constituency in the coming times. Not only this, during the debate in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi had emphatically told the BJP leaders that he is now going to defeat BJP in Gujarat. At the same time, the way Aam Aadmi Party has focused, it has become a challenge for BJP to save its fort.
5. Plan to achieve ethnic-regional equation
Aam Aadmi Party had put BJP in tension by winning Visavadar seat of Saurashtra, while Congress’s active presence in Gujarat can increase BJP’s troubles in the tribal belt. Both these areas may get attention in the formation of the new cabinet. In such a situation, BJP can also experiment like Deputy CM in the government to reach out to the tribal belt.
In Gujarat, 27 assembly seats are reserved for tribals while tribals have influence on 40 seats in the state. Apart from this, there is already resentment in Saurashtra region and Rajput community has been angry with BJP for a long time. In this way, the need was felt for BJP to create new social engineering by doing political surgery in Gujarat. That is why BJP has adopted the strategy of forming the Bhupendra Patel cabinet in a new way so that it can maintain its political dominance in Gujarat.
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