Now, Gujarat's fisheries minister Purshottam Solanki fumes over portfolio

On December 31, 2017, Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel was given the finance portfolio.

File photo

Gandhinagar: Days after Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel was placated by the BJP and given back the finance ministry, now Purshottam Solanki, the fisheries minister in Gujarat is reported to be unhappy with his portfolio.

"Those who have won the elections for the first time have been given good portfolios. I want to serve the people. But I have not been given the right portfolio. I have been winning for five terms. However, I was given the fisheries department," he said on Tuesday.

Solanki added, "This is not just an injustice to me but towards the whole Koli community. The community is disturbed, the government should do something about it. I have talked to CM Vijay Rupani about it. If I will not be given the right portfolio then I will do what the community tells me to."

Following, his outburst, senior Gujarat BJP leader Bhupendrasinh Chudasama met Solanki. "Purshottam Solanki has expressed his sentiments. We are old friends. He is not angry at all. The Central leadership will take a call on this," he said. 

Earlier, on December 31, 2017, Nitin Patel took charge after he was given the finance portfolio, following BJP president Amit Shah's intervention.

"We have made certain changes in the portfolios. We have given finance to Nitin bhai. With this, the issue is over now. Such small things happen in a big family like the BJP. I have already sent a letter to the Governor, informing him of this change in the portfolios," CM Rupani had said.

Patel had maintained that the issue was not about some departments, but about 'self-respect'. "I had conveyed to the party high-command to either give me respectable departments or relieve me from the Cabinet," he had said.

In the previous government headed by Rupani, Patel used to handle key portfolios of finance and urban development among other departments.

However, this time, finance was given to Saurabh Patel, while Rupani kept urban development with himself, leaving only road and building, health and family welfare, medical education, Narmada, Kalpsar and capital projects with Patel.

Unhappy over the allotment, Patel had refrained from taking charge of the departments, prompting the top BJP leadership to swing into action to placate the senior Patidar leader.

(With PTI inputs)