Vijay Rupani to take oath as Gujarat CM today

Ahmedabad: The oath taking ceremony of Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat respectively will take place on Sunday at Mahatma Mandi in Ahmedabad.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will attend the oath taking ceremony.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bharat Pandey said that the group of BJP MLAs including BJP MP in Rajya Sabha Parsottambhai Rupala and former chief minister Aandiben Patel will meet Governor O.P. Kohli today to tender a proposal containing the name of Rupani and Patel to appoint them as Chief Minister and deputy Chief Minister respectively.

"Oath taking ceremony will take place on Sunday at Mahatma Mandi at 2 pm," he said.

He expressed hope that Rupani and Nitin will carry the legacy, inherited from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to make Gujarat a 'symbol of development'.

"Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel are one of our excellent workers, we have the required strength in the assembly and we also have the confidence our MLAs and I am confident that people of Gujarat will accept them as their leader," he said.

BJP state unit chief Vijay Rupani was appointed as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat while Health Minister Nitin Patel was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister earlier on Friday.

Thanking Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah for reposing faith in him, Rupani, asserted that his team is fully committed to harnessing aspirations of the poor, marginalised, farmers and youngsters.

In a crucial meeting attended by BJP Chief Amit Shah and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at the party headquarters in the state, the decision to make Rupani as the next Chief Minister was announced.

Earlier, the BJP central leadership made it clear that a state MLA would be assigned the job.

Anandiben Patel had tendered her resignation to the Governor earlier on Wednesday.

The Governor has asked her to continue as the care taker chief minster till the alternate arrangement.