Gujarat BJP MLAs to meet on Saturday, Bhupendra Patel to take oath as CM

GANDHINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs will meet on Saturday and formally make an announcement on the new Chief Minister of Gujarat after the party registered a historic victory in the state Assembly elections on Thursday.

Chief Whip of BJP Pankaj Desai said that BJP’s Bhupendra Patel has submitted his resignation as Chief Minister of Gujarat. “Governor Acharya Devvrat has accepted the resignation of the chief minister and his cabinet”, Desai said while speaking to the media in Gandhinagar on Friday.

A meeting of all newly-elected MLAs has been called on Saturday morning to formally elect the new chief minister of Gujarat. “The BJP Legislature Party meeting will be held at 10 am on Saturday in Gandhingar and an official announcement regarding the chief minister of Gujarat will be made”, Desai said.

Chief Whip of BJP, Pankaj Desai, speaking to reporters.

Earlier on Friday, BJP Gujarat state president CR Patil said that Bhupendra Patel will take oath as chief minister again on December 12 and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will attend the swearing-in ceremony being planned in Gandhinagar.

The BJP swept the Gujarat elections and won 156 of the total 182 seats on Thursday. The BJP’s seventh consecutive Assembly poll win in Gujarat is its biggest since the founding of this state in 1960. In the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP has smashed all previous records of electoral performance.

The Congress finished a distant second with 17 seats while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the new electoral entrant in Gujarat, won five seats, the Samajwadi Party (SP) won a lone seat and three Independent candidates, too, registered wins. The AAP’s CM face Isudan Gadhvi lost the Khambhaliya seat to BJP candidate Hardasbhai Bera by 19,000 votes.

Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel too scripted history, winning the Ghatlodia constituency by a record margin of about 1,92,000 votes. This constituency has given Gujarat two of its chief ministers — Anandiben Patel and the current CM. Gujarat’s MoS Home Harsh Sanghavi too won the Majura constituency with a margin of 1,16,000 votes.

The BJP also won 24 out of 27 ST reserved seats in Gujarat, an increase of 12 seats as compared to the last elections. The tribals too voted for BJP in huge numbers. In the last Assembly elections in 2017, the BJP won 99 seats, Congress trailed close at 77, and NCP, BTP and independent candidates secured 1, 2, and 3 seats, respectively. (ANI)