It was deja vu and on expected lines. Nearly three years after the BJP won Gujarat with a resounding 156 of the 182 assembly seats, all 16 cabinet ministers, except chief minister Bhupendra Patel, tendered their resignations on October 16 and a new 26-member cabinet was sworn in the next day.

After a break of five years, Gujarat again gets a deputy chief minister in 40-year-old Harsh Sanghavi, the three-time MLA from Majura seat in Surat city. While his ascent was anticipated, the elevation from a junior minister of state to No. 2 position came as a surprise to all within the BJP as well as observers. The move is also a subtle dent to chief minister Patel as Sanghavi is seen as a more popular leader with wider resonance among the youth.

Back in 2021, five years into then chief minister V

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