GUJARAT GOVT

to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while minister of state Harsh Sanghvi is known to be close to state BJP president CR Paatil.

Soon after the ceremony, a party leader told news agency PTI there is widespread dissatisfaction over the dropping of senior ministers, who held key posts in the Rupani government.

When asked about this, former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said: “People come and go from the posts. Their supporters feel left out. But now it is not my responsibility. The party leadership has to look after it... I want to congratulate the ministers, they will lead the party in the next election,” he said.

Bhupendra Patel (59), who was sworn in as the 17th chief minister of the state on Monday, was present at the Raj Bhavan ceremony, along with Rupani, whose resigned on Saturday.

Rajendra Trivedi, Jitu Vaghani, Rushikesh Patel, Purnesh Modi, Raghavji Patel, Kanubhai Desai, Kiritsinh Rana, Naresh Patel, Pradip Parmar and Arjunsinh Chauhan were sworn in as cabinet ministers. Trivedi, Rana and Raghavji Patel have been ministers earlier. The BJP adopted the “no-repeat” formula a step further by not inducting any member of the Rupani ministry.

Patel’s elevation -- he is the first from the Patidar sub-group to be a chief minister -- is key to BJP’s plans to woo the Kadva Patidar community, which some political observers say, has drifted away from the party.

Making him the CM is being seen as an attempt by the BJP to woo the Patidars ahead of the 2022 polls and retain the grip on Gujarat, which has been ruled by the BJP for over two decades.

MAJOR RIVER ABOVE DANGER MARK

Major rivers, including Ganga, Rapti, Kuwano and Sharda are flowing above the danger mark as per data of the flood management information system centre. (FMISC), Lucknow. Heavy rain in UP is expected to increase the water level in the next 24 hours.

According to information, river Ganga is flowing 0.2 metres above the danger mark in Badaun and river Rapti is flowing 0.19 metres above the danger level in Gorakhpur. In Lakhimpur Kheri, river Sharda is flowing 0.3 metres above the danger mark while Kuwano in Gonda is flowing 0.4 metres above the danger mark.

The administration in each of these districts has deployed district disaster management committees to help people in low-lying areas.