Bhupendra Patel was Installed as Gujarat Chief Minister, Cabinet Swearing-in Later
Manas Dasgupta
GANDHNAGAR, Sept 13: Bhupendra Patel was on Monday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat at a simple ceremony held at the Raj-Bhavan. The Governor Acharya Devvrat administered him the oath of office and secrecy in the presence of a large number of dignitaries including several union ministers and the chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states.
Bhupendra Patel, who was unanimously elected the leader of the BJP legislature party on Sunday, will be the 17th chief minister of the state succeeding Vijay Rupani who sprang a surprise by quitting the office suddenly on Saturday.
Among those present on the occasion were the union ministers Amit Shah, Mansukh Mandaviya, Narendrasinh Tomar, Pralhad Joshi, Bhupendra Yadav, Purshottam Rupala and Darshana Jardosh and the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Haryana ML Khattar, Karnataka Basavraj Bommai and Goa Pramod Savant.
Only the Chief Minister took oath on Monday and the Cabinet members will be sworn in separately after the names are decided by the party.
According to sources, Amit Shah, Mr. Bhupendra Patel and other leaders will decide on the names of the cabinet ministers as he party sources said some of the senior leaders and ministers in the Rupani cabinet, whose performance was not found to be satisfactory during the last four years of the Rupani administration may be dropped from the new cabinet to pave way for the new faces whose past performances would not be a negative factor in the December, 2022, state Assembly elections. There is yet no clarity regarding the continuation of Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel. “We don’t know yet whether there will be a new Deputy CM or just Cabinet Ministers,” a party leader said.
It is also not clear whether Mr. Nitin Patel will be part of the new cabinet or not.
Mr. Nitin Patel on Monday denied media reports that he was sulking after being overlooked for the post of Chief Minister as the party picked up first-time legislator Bhupendra Patel, a protege of Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, as the successor of Vijay Rupani.
In the Cabinet, the party is likely to give larger representation to the legislators from Saurashtra and north Gujarat where the BJP was expected to improve its prospects in the next Assembly election.
The selection of Bhupendra Patel as the chief minister, however, set at rest the speculations that the Gujarat Assembly elections could be advanced to February-March next year when some five state Assemblies including Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are scheduled to go to the polls.
The speculation was based on the premise that in event of non-MLA was elected the new leader, including sending any of the union ministers to head the new government would necessitate a by-election within six months which might not be acceptable to the Election Commission of India since general elections were due by November-December, next year. Among the serious contenders for the post were the union ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Purshottam Rupala and the administrator of Lakshadweep Praful Patel, all of them non-MLAs.
