All 16 ministers in Gujarat submit resignations to CM Patel ahead of cabinet expansion
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Gandhinagar (PTI): A day ahead of the planned cabinet expansion in Gujarat, all 16 ministers except Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel resigned on Thursday, BJP sources said.
Patel will expand his cabinet on Friday, the state government had announced earlier in the morning.
"Resignations of all the 16 ministers have been taken by the party. Except for chief minister Patel, all the ministers have resigned," said a BJP source.
As per the official release, the cabinet expansion will take place at 11.30 am on Friday.
The present council of minister has 17 members including CM Patel. Eight of them are cabinet-rank ministers while the others are Ministers of State (MoS).
Gujarat, which has a 182-member assembly, can have a maximum of 27 ministers (15 per cent of the strength of the House).
Earlier this month, MoS Jagdish Vishwakarma became the new president of the state Bharatiya Janata Party unit, replacing Union minister C R Paatil.
Bhupendra Patel became chief minister for the second time on December 12, 2022.
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Punjab Police security cover of MP Harbhajan Singh withdrawn
Chandigarh (PTI): The Punjab Police is learnt to have withdrawn the security cover of Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, one of the seven lawmakers who switched to the BJP from AAP alongside Raghav Chadha, sources said.
The police security cover comprising 9-10 policemen was withdrawn on Saturday, they said.
The Punjab Police security was deployed at the former cricketer's residence at the Chhotti Baradari locality in Jalandhar.
Meanwhile, security personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force could be seen deployed outside the residence of the former cricketer on Sunday.
AAP workers on Saturday held protests outside the residences of Singh, Ashok Mittal and Rajinder Gupta, who have joined BJP, and wrote 'Gaddar' (traitor) on the boundary walls of their residences with spray paint in Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
On Friday, AAP Rajya Sabha members Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak had announced their exit from the party as they joined the BJP along with five other MPs -- Mittal, Singh, Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney.
Chadha alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals, which is why he was joining the BJP. He said the seven had merged with the BJP as a faction.
In the immediate wake of the exodus, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann dubbed the seven leaders "gaddars".
Mann alleged that the BJP was trying to break the AAP and had "betrayed the people of Punjab".
