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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Baghdad, Feb 25 (AP): Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, known for promoting the rule of law, returned to Baghdad Tuesday for the first time in more than two years despite ongoing security threats.

In 2021, he survived an assassination attempt in which two armed drones targeted his residence in Baghdad's Green Zone area. The attack came at a time of tensions sparked by the refusal of Iran-backed militias to accept parliamentary election results.

Al-Kadhimi left Iraq after his term as prime minister ended in 2022 and has been living in London and the United Arab Emirates.

The former prime minister did not immediately make any public statements upon his return.

Three officials with his office who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly said security threats against the former prime minister were still present. They said he had returned at the invitation of current Iraqi political leaders who hoped he could use his connections to help them confront a worsening economic crisis that threatens the country's stability.

Al-Kadhimi has good relations with the United States and Saudi Arabia. Iraq is currently looking to strengthen ties with both countries, particularly as regional upheavals over the past year have left Iran in a weakened position.

During his term, Baghdad hosted a series of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which helped pave the way for the regional rivals to formally restore diplomatic ties in 2023 after a seven-year rift. He was Iraq's former intelligence chief before becoming prime minister in 2020 following mass anti-government protests that toppled the previous cabinet.

Iraq is also set to hold parliamentary elections later this year, raising the possibility that al-Kadhimi might be preparing to attempt a political come-back.