The swearing-in ceremony of new ministers of the Bhupendra Patel-led government in Gujarat will take place on Thursday. The ceremony is scheduled for 1pm today and more than 20 ministers are reported to be inducted into the new cabinet at Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar.
News reports said that majority of ministers in the cabinet headed by previous chief minister Vijay Rupani are likely to be dropped and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may replace them with fresh faces. So far, the party is mum about possible cabinet members' names.
Patel took oath as the 17th chief minister of Gujarat on Monday. He replaced Rupani, who unexpectedly stepped down from the top post in the state, ahead of the assembly elections in 2022.
The 59-year-old leader is a first-time member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Ahmedabad.
Senior leaders in the party are reaching out to those not likely to be retained as ministers, news agency ANI reported. "There is a massive exercise going on to see that leaders who won't be accommodated in the cabinet do not feel left out," it reported, quoting a source.
The BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat for more than two decades, is counting on Patel to shore up the party's fortunes ahead of the assembly elections towards the end of next year. In the 2017 state election, the BJP won 99 of the state's 182 Assembly seats and Congress got 77 seats.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat for more than two decades, is counting on Patel to shore up the party's fortunes ahead of the assembly elections towards the end of next year. In the 2017 state election, the BJP won 99 of the state's 182 Assembly seats and Congress got 77 seats.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier the swearing-in ceremony was scheduled for Wednesday and preparations for the same had started at the governor's house in the state capital. However, the plan was later dropped all of a sudden and banners of the swearing-in ceremony were also taken down. Neither the BJP nor the state government gave any reason for the postponement.
(With agency inputs)