At least 20 chief ministers from BJP-ruled states are expected to attend Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s inauguration event in the state capital on Monday, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Governor Acharya Devvrat will administer Patel’s oath as Gujarat’s 18th chief minister at a ceremony at the Helipad Ground in Gandhinagar’s new secretariat building. At the event, the new ministerial council will also be sworn in.
JP Nadda, the national president of the BJP, and 10-15 cabinet ministers are slated to attend the event.
Key Points
- The party won 156 of the total 182 seats in the recently concluded Gujarat Assembly elections, giving it an unprecedented lead and its eighth straight victory. The main opposition party, Congress, could gain 17 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won five seats in the state legislative assembly.
- A committee of IAS officials is monitoring the preparations for the swearing-in ceremony, for which a temporary building with a capacity of 20,000 persons has been built at the helipad field.
- Party office-bearers from the taluka and city levels are scheduled to attend the swearing-in event. Sitting and past MPs and MLAs from the party, office-bearers of various morchas, chairmen/vice-chairmen and directors of APMCs, gramme panchayat sarpanches, and Jan Sangh veterans are also anticipated to participate.
- Several national level figures were brought in for campaign carpet bombing during the party’s election campaign in Gujarat.
- Bhupendra Patel resigned as Chief Minister on Friday, paving the door for a new administration to be led by him once again. According to party insiders, the next Gujarat administration would include some fresh faces.
