Bhupendra Patel to take oath as Gujarat CM; PM Modi to attend
Gandhinagar, (PTI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhupendra Patel will take oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for a second straight term in Gandhinagar on Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and other dignitaries.
Patel will be administered the oath as the 18th chief minister by Governor Acharya Devvrat at a function to be held at the Helipad Ground near the new Secretariat at 2 PM.
Besides the prime minister and Shah, chief ministers of other BJP-ruled states are set to attend the ceremony, BJP leaders said.
Along with Patel, some new ministers are also expected to take the oath.
In the just-concluded Gujarat Assembly elections, counting for which was held on December 8, the BJP won a seventh straight term by winning record 156 seats in the 182-member House. The Congress won 17 constituencies and AAP 5.
Patel, 60, resigned as chief minister along with his entire cabinet on Friday to pave the way for the formation of a new government following the election results.
He was elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party on Saturday, following which he met the governor and staked the claim to form the next government.
Patel won the Ghatlodia seat with the highest margin of 1.92 lakh votes in the elections.
A low-profile BJP leader and the first from the Kadva Patidar sub-group to become CM, Patel replaced Vijay Rupani in September 2021.
Hectic consultations are going on in BJP for picking ministerial candidates against the backdrop of the historic mandate given the party will have to walk the tightrope of balancing caste and regional representations, sources said.
MLAs Kanu Desai, Raghavji Patel, Rushikesh Patel, Harsh Sanghavi, Shankar Chaudhary, Purnesh Modi, Manisha Vakil, Ramanlal Vora and Raman Patkar are among those expected to be inducted in the ministry, they added.
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Bengal: Hundreds stage protest over 'threats' by TMC workers
Kolkata (PTI): Demanding safety after counting of votes, hundreds of villagers staged a protest in Falta in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Saturday, alleging they were receiving life threats from TMC workers in the area.
The protesters, many of them women and holding BJP flags, blocked the road in Hasimnagar village, alleging that local panchayat pradhan Israfil, a close associate of TMC candidate Jehangir Khan, issued them threats of attacks after poll results are announced.
The CRPF deputy commandant visited the area with a large force and assured the demonstrators of ensuring their safety.
Khan dismissed the allegations and said the women were "deployed" by the BJP to stage the demonstration and engineer the arrest of TMC functionaries in the area before the counting to "harm the morale of the TMC supporters".
"If the charges are proved, I am ready to face the law," he said.
Fatima Bibi, one of the protesters belonging to the BJP's Mahila Morcha, claimed Israfil and his men "have been visiting the area since April 30 and threatening us that there would be bloodshed from May 5. We demand CRPF remain in the area".
The CRPF official said, "We are here to instill confidence among the people with support of the local police, We have assured them of full security."
An Election Commission official said a report has been sought about the protests from the district administration.
