VADODARA: It was for the first time after 2001 that a MLA from Vadodara city was picked up as a cabinet minister in the Gujarat government.
In the recent past, former minister Saurabh Patel, who was elected from the Akota constituency in the city was selected as a cabinet minister in 2012. While Saurabh Patel had contested from the city, he did not belong to Vadodara.
Before Saurabh Patel, it was Nalin Bhatt and Jaspal Singh who were made cabinet ministers. They were together in the cabinet too, but later it was Singh who remained a minister till 2001 when he was dropped from the cabinet. Singh had quit the BJP only to rejoin the party later.
After Singh, MLAs like Bhupendra Lakhawala, Jitendra Sukhadia and Yogesh Patel had made it to the ministry but only as ministers of state. Rajendra Trivedi who has now been made cabinet minister was named a minister of state with independent charge in 2016.
Trivedi became Assembly Speaker in his second term as a MLA, but the city did not get a cabinet minister. However, all that seems to have been forgotten with Trivedi’s appointment. Sources said that it was for the first time that a MLA from the city took oath as a minister immediately after the chief minister.
