Ahmedabad: Five days into his second tenure, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is already facing a rebellion from his second-in-command Nitin Patel.
Sources close to Patel said the Deputy Chief Minister is upset with the portfolio allocation, having been stripped of Finance, Urban Development and Petroleum ministries. Sources said Patel has threatened to resign if the portfolios are not handed back to him in three days.
While the Finance portfolio has been handed to Saurabh Patel, Rupani chose to keep Finance and Urban Development with himself.
Patel, who did not attend office on Friday, has been given the charge of Road and Building, Health, Medical Education, Narmada, Kalpsar and Capital Project.
The portfolios were announced on December 28, two days after Vijay Rupani and his ministers took oath in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The meeting to finalise the portfolios had itself gotten off to a late start 9 pm, instead of 5 pm as Rupani, Patel and state BJP president Jitu Vaghani held a four-hour long meeting at the chief minister's residence.
After allocation of portfolios, Rupani made it a point to mention that Patel was still “number two” in the government. Clearly, Patel wants more.
"There is nothing wrong in asking for my portfolios back as it is about my self-respect. What is the point of being the deputy chief minister if I hold less important portfolios. I have aired my disagreement to the right person. I do not want to talk much on the issue, but will reveal everything when the time is right," Patel was quoted by DNA newspaper.
On Thursday, a meeting was supposed to be held at 5:00pm, it got delayed and started at around 9:00pm as Rupani, Patel and state BJP president Jitu Vaghani held a four-hour long meeting at the chief minister's residence before arriving at the state secretariat for the cabinet meet. The BJP leaders took time in pacifying Patel who is still discontented.
Meanwhile, observing the discontent, Patidar leader Hardik Patel seized the opportunity to offer Nitin Patel a position in the Congress party. “Justice not done with Nitin Patel. He has worked hard,” he said.
After a melodramatic flip-flop in portfolio allocation on Thursday night, Friday remained rather slack a day for the secretariat of Gujarat. Five ministers — out of a total of 18 in the team of CM Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel — only attended office while the rest stayed away and spent the day in the constituency or remained busy with felicitation functions. They may now return on Monday only.
Cabinet ministers RC Faldu, Kaushik Patel and Ganpat Vasava and state minister Pradipsinh Jadeja and the lone woman minister Vibhavari Dave assumed office on Friday. All these ministers performed pujas in office and spent some time holding discussions with the officials of departments concerned.
Finance and energy minister Saurabh Patel visited Swaminarayan Temple at Salangpur that falls in his constituency Botad and met the Sadhus of this sact. He also went to Botad where the BJP workers had held felicitation for him. His colleague in cabinet and social justice and empowerment minister Ishwar Parmar also did not appear in office, and preferred to rush back to home town Baben near Bardoli town instead. He also visited Swaraj Ashram, established by Sardar Patel at Bardoli, and sugar factory in town. A felicitation ceremony was held for Parmar.
His namesake and minister of state for cooperative sector Ishwarsinh Patel reached hometown Hansot near Ankleshwar of Bharuch district to attend the felicitation ceremony arranged by his supporters there. Minister of state for health Kishor Kanani attended a road show held in his honour by his supporters in Surat city. Kanani's supporters held road across four kilometer distance.
Minister of state for Irrigation Parbat Patel acted surprisingly strange, and before visiting his constituency Tharad, reached Dhima village that falls under Vav seat from where his arch rival in party and former minister Shankar Chaudhary lost polls against Congress candidate and Alpesh Thakor supporter Geniben Thakor. Incident of public raid led by Geniben on government premise in Dhima village, in which they found stock of liquor, had become strong reason for Shankar Chaudhary to lose the polls. Geniben had alleged that Chaudhary stored liquor on government premise to lure voters. Parbat Patel is inducted in cabinet as Chaudhary bit the dust.
Other state level ministers Vasan Ahir and Raman Patkar also visited their hometown. Patkar also called the meeting of local government officials of Valsad district at Umbergaon and discussed public welfare schemes with them.
