Bhupendra Patel will take oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the second time on Monday. The oath-taking event will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The chief ministers of other BJP-ruled states are also expected to attend the event.
The party secured a seventh straight term in the state with nearly 52 per cent of vote share as it broke its previous records.
“Gujarat made a record to break a record,” the Prime Minister said on Thursday in his victory speech where he hailed the efforts by his party workers and credited the voters for rejecting dynastic politics.
Bhupendra Patel, who had replaced Vijay Rupani as the Chief Minister last year in the middle of the term, will be administered the oath as the 18th CM by Governor Acharya Devvrat. The mega event is set to be held at the Helipad Ground near the new Secretariat at 2 PM.He was elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party on Saturday following a key meet.Called ‘Dada’ by his followers, Patel is a low-profile leader and the first one from the Kadva Patidar sub-group to become the Chief Minister.
All eyes will be next on the cabinet formation in the state where the BJP has said its work over the past two decades has brought it back. The opposition’s claims of anti-incumbency have been countered with ‘pro-incumbency’ remarks.Patel also won his second assembly election from the Ghatoldia seat in Ahmedabad with a handsome margin of nearly 2 lakh votes. The veteran leader had contested his first assembly polls from the seat in 2017.
He began his political career in 1995 and has served the civic body for nearly a decade, HT had reported earlier.In his nearly year-long tenure, the Morbi bridge tragedy was the biggest accident the state had seen. This had prompted attacks from the opposition.
Amid speculation over the cabinet formation, MLAs Kanu Desai, Raghavji Patel, Rushikesh Patel, Harsh Sanghavi, Shankar Chaudhary, Purnesh Modi, Manisha Vakil, Ramanlal Vora and Raman Patkar are likely to be inducted, news agency PTI reported.
The Gujarat win is a mega boost for the BJP in 2022 after winning four states earlier this year, including Uttar Pradesh.The AAP – which had also run an extensive months-long campaign in the state – managed to secure just five seats. But Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the result, saying the AAP has become a “national party”.The Congress took a major hit after running a silent campaign. Its tally went down to 17 as compared to 77 in the 2017 elections.
