The new Gujarat cabinet will be sworn in on Thursday, days after Bhupendra Patel took oath as the chief minister following the resignation of Vijay Rupani. Reports said the BJP has instructed all its MLAs to reach Gandhinagar by Wednesday.
Though the final list of ministers is still not finalised, a few members in the current cabinet are likely to be dropped to make way for new faces, news agency IANS reported. BJP’s Gujarat in-charge Bhupendra Yadav is in the state capital for the new cabinet selection.
Interestingly, the swearing-in will take place a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday which the state BJP celebrates as an annual event by announcing a slew of welfare programmes of the government.
Patel, a first-term MLA, was sworn in as the 17th chief minister of Gujarat on Monday, two days after Rupani’s surprise exit from the post, a year ahead of the Assembly polls.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Goa CM Pramod Sawant and Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai were present at the swearing in ceremony.
With state Assembly polls scheduled in December 2022, the BJP is banking on Patel, a Patidar, for poll victory. In the 2017 Assembly elections, BJP won 99 of the 182 seats and Congress got 77.
