New Gujarat CM Bhupendra to take oath of office today
Ghatlodia constituency legislator will take oath as the seventeenth CM of the state at his residence in Gandhinagar; Shiv Sena vows to ‘teach a lesson’ to BJP, to contest UP, Goa polls
Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat has invited the Bharatiya Janata Party’s newly elected leader and the Ghatlodia constituency legislator, Bhupendra Patel to take oath as the seventeenth chief minister of the state on Monday, at his residence in Gandhinagar, the Raj Bhavan.
The newly elected leader, Bhupendra Patel staked his claim to form a new government to the Gujarat governor on Sunday evening, ater the announcement of his name for the top job at the state BJP headquarters, Kamalam earlier in the day.
Accepting his claim, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat invited Patel to take oath as Gujarat’s seventeenth CM. The oath taking ceremony will be held at his residence in Gandhinagar, Raj Bhavan at 2.20 p.m. on Monday.
“Only the chief minister will be sworn in tomorrow,” state BJP president C.R. Paatil said while talking to reporters on Sunday ater Bhupendra Patel’s selection in the legislature party meeting at Kamalam.
Later Paatil added that the revamped cabinet will be formed following consultation with the senior leaders in a couple of days.
Bhupendra Patel, who was also present at the press briefing, told the media that he was grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief J.P. Nadda, and Union minister Amit Shah for the trust they reposed in him.
“The blessings of former CM Anandiben Patel are with me all the time. We will plan anew and discuss with the organisation to take forward the development works,” said Bhupendra Patel.
Ghatlodia MLA Bhupendra Patel was selected as Gujarat’s new chief minister following Vijay Rupani’s resignation on Saturday from the top post. It’s over a year before the state goes to polls for the state Assembly elections.
Bhupendra, earlier has served as the chairman of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). He has never held a ministerial post, just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he became Gujarat CM, twenty years ago. Similar to Modi, he’s also a first time MLA.
The BJP’S legislature party meeting was atended by Central Observers -- Union Ministers Narendra Tomar and Pralhad Joshi. BJP’S national general secretary Tarun Chug was also present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena has vowed to “teach a lesson” to the Bharatiya Janata Party by contesting all 403 seas in the upcoming Utar Pradesh elections, plus the Goa polls, both due to be held in early-2022, top officials said here.
The pre-poll bugle was sounded ater a high-level meeting of Sena leaders, led by the state president Thakur Anil Singh in Lucknow, ater deliberating on what it termed as ‘jungle raj’ prevalent in UP under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath since the past four-and-half years.
“We deliberated on several issues ranging from the education system to the healthcare sector, the bungling of the Covid pandemic, the problems of farmers, the spectre of unemployment among youth, etc,” said UP Shiv Sena Secretary Vishwajeet Singh.
Confirming the developments, Sena’s Chief Spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said that as per current plans, the party may put up at least 100 candidates in UP and 20 in Goa polls.
In a no-holds barred atack, Singh said that the (UP) regime has joined hands with the ‘mafia’ resulting in a ‘jungle raj’ where sisters and daughters are not secure, and the government has completely failed on the law-and-order front.
He charged the Yogi regime of not honouring the Supreme Court verdict giving 15 per cent fee remission to students, while youth reeling under unemployment and inflation are fleeing the state.
“The UP government is giving a step-motherly treatment to the farmers, the health infrastructure has collapsed and they could make no arrangements to even cremate those claimed by Covid,” Singh said.
“However, now the Sena will stand up ‘as the voice of the masses’ and ‘teach a lesson’ to the BJP in UP by contesting all the seats in the state assembly,” he said.
“We have been fighting UP elections since 1991 when one MLA Pawan Kumar Pandey was elected. We also have many Shiv Sainiks elected in various civic bodies across the state,” Singh told IANS on the party’s prospects.