Gandhinagar, 17 Oct

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Friday reshuffled his cabinet by inducting 19 MLAs as ministers, taking the total strength of his council of ministers, including himself, to 26, and elevated junior home minister Harsh Sanghavi to the post of Deputy Chief Minister.

Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers as well as those who were elevated to the cabinet rank and given MoS independent charge from ministers of state.

Sanghavi, who represents the Munjara Assembly constituency in Surat city, took oath as the deputy CM. Till now, he held the post of Minister of State for Home.

Sanghavi and five other MLAs who were part of the previous Bhupendra Patel-led cabinet, continue to be in the council of ministers. Though all 16 ministers had resigned on Thursday, the resignations of these six ministers were not accepted by the CM.

While three of these six - Kanubhai Patel, Rushikesh Patel and Kunvarji Bavalia- were earlier cabinet ministers, Sanghavi, Praful Pansheriya and Purshottam Solanki were MoS.

Of them, only Sanghavi who has been elevated to the post of deputy CM, and Pansheriya, given MoS with independent charge, took fresh oaths on Friday.

Some of the 19 MLAs included in the council of ministers are Jitu Vaghani, Arjun Modhwadia and Manisha Vakil.

A surprise entry was Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, as a minister of state.