To her credit, Bhanuben Babariya (47) is the only woman in Bhupendra Patel’s newly sworn-in cabinet. She is also the only Dalit woman name in the power list of Bhupendra 2.0’s “List Of 16.”
Elected as an MLA from Rajkot Rural in the recently concluded Gujarat assembly election, Babariya defeated her close rivals from Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Babariya won the Assembly constituency by securing a whooping 119,695 (52.54 per cent) votes while the AAP’s Vashrambhai Sagathiya came second with 71,201 (31.25 per cent). The grand old party’s Bathwar Sureshkumar Karshanbhai was a distant third with 29,175 votes (12.81 per cent).
Who is Bhanuben Babariya?
Following the announcement of Gujarat assembly election results 2022, Babariya became an MLA for the third time. She is currently a councillor of Rajkot Municipal Corporation. In the past, she had won the assembly poll from Rajkot Rural twice – in 2007 and 2012. In 2012, she defeated Congress candidate Sagathiya Lakhabhai Jethabhai.
Bhanuben is a graduate who also took on a one-year LLB course from DDK Law College, Saurashtra University. Her self-proclaimed assets tally more than two crores.
A two-time MLA, she was elected from the same seat in 2007 and in 2012. With a clean record sans any corruption charges, she is known to be active on social media where Bhanuben often shares the inspiration she draws from PM Modi.
The oath taking ceremony was a high-profile event with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MHA Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his Maharashtra and Goa counterparts Eknath Shinde and Pramod Sawant, and Union minister Smriti Irani, among others, in attendance. The ministers, including Patel, were sworn in by Gujarat governor Acharya Devvrat at the helipad ground inside the new secretariat complex in Gandhinagar.
Patel, who replaced Vijay Rupani last year, became the 18th chief minister of PM Modi and Shah’s home state. The saffron camp beat anti-incumbency by registering a record victory to retain power in Gujarat for the seventh straight term.
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