Who Is Rivaba Jadeja? Cricketer's Wife Sworn In As Gujarat Cabinet Minister

Rivaba Jadeja, wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja and MLA from Jamnagar North, was inducted into the Gujarat Cabinet on Friday.

Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister in a reshuffle seen as a reset ahead of the local body elections and 2027 Assembly polls.

All ministers, except Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, resigned on Thursday to give the leadership a free hand in restructuring the cabinet.

Who Is Rivaba Jadeja?

Rivaba Jadeja was born on November 2, 1990, in Rajkot, to Hardevsinh and Prafullaba Solanki. She is from a Rajput family with royal lineage and is related to veteran Congress leader Hari Singh Solanki.

Jadeja pursued her education in Mechanical Engineering from Gujarat Technological University in Ahmedabad. She founded the Shree Matrushakti Charitable Trust, an NGO that focuses on women's welfare and empowerment.

In 2016, she married cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, and the couple has a daughter.

She was associated with the Rajput organisation Karni Sena before formally entering politics. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 and became active in the Jamnagar-Saurashtra region.

In the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, she contested from the Jamnagar North constituency as a BJP candidate and won by a margin of over 50,000 votes. Her husband, Ravindra Jadeja, campaigned for her during the polls, drawing massive crowds in support.

Her main rival, Karshanbhai Karmur of the Aam Aadmi Party, secured around 23 per cent of the votes, while Congress candidate Bipendrasinh Chatursinh Jadeja finished third with 15.5 per cent.