Bhupendra, a BJP leader, was sworn in Monday as the 18th Chief minister of Gujarat for a second term. Governor Acharya devvrat administered the oath and secrecy to the 60 year-old MLA from Ghatlodia. In December, he won the Ghatlodia Seat by a record margin with 1.92 lakh votes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh, the Defence minister, attended the ceremony to swear in new ministers. The ceremony included the attendance of Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister), Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Bommai Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai Assam Chief Secretary Himanta Biswa Sarma and Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami. Also, Eknath Shinde, Tripura CM Manik Saha and Pramod Sawant, Goa chief minister.
Kuvarji Bavaliya was among those who took oath today and became ministers. Parshottam Solanki, Bachubhai Khabad and Mukesh Patel, Praful Parmar, Bhikhusinh Parmar, and Kunvarji Hapati took oath today as Ministers Of State. Harsh Sanghavi, Jagdish Vishwakarma, and Jagdish Vaishwakarma were sworn into office as Ministers Of State (Independent Charge).
Patel’s entire family was present at the ceremony. They arrived at Gandhinagar’s Helipad Ground, near the Secretariat.
It was a major win for the saffron Party in Gujarat. The elections were held in two phases, in December. The BJP took home 156 seats in the Gujarat Assembly’s 182-member Assembly. In one of its worst performances in the state’s history, the Congress won just 17 seats. However, the new player Aam Aadmi Party won five seats.
Friday saw Patel, along with the entire cabinet, resign as CM to make way for the formation a new government. After being elected leader of BJP’s legislative party, he met the governor to discuss the formation of the next government.
Patel was the first Kadva Patidar subgroup member to become CM. He replaced Vijay Rupani, the former CM, in 2021.