Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], September 12 : Bhupendra Patel is set to take oath as the 17th Chief Minister of Gujarat at 2.20 pm on Monday, sources said today. “New Cabinet will be announced later,” according to sources. Earlier today state BJP president CR Patil said that Patel will take oath as the new chief minister of Gujarat tomorrow. “Gujarat Chief Minister-elect Bhupendra Patel will take oath tomorrow. No one else will take oath along with him as the name of Deputy Chief Minister is not decided yet,” said Patil. The state BJP chief said that details about the new cabinet will be finalised later. Patel met Governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar earlier in the day to stake claim to the top post in the state. Vijay Rupani, who stepped down as chief minister of Gujarat on Saturday accompanied Patel along with a delegation of BJP leaders to Raj Bhavan. Patel was elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party after a meeting in the state capital Gandhinagar today. The Chief Minister-elect of Gujarat in his first media address after being nominated by the party today expressed gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president JP Nadda and his predecessor Vijay Rupani for reposing faith in him, and said he would take the development journey of the state forward. “First of all, I want to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, JP Nadda and Amit Shah from the bottom of my heart. I also want to thank all the leaders of Gujarat BJP including CR Patil and the team of Vijay Rupani,” Patel said. “The faith that party showed me, I will not let it break. I will take forward the incomplete development work in the state. We will move forward by keeping the organisation along,” he added. A protege of former chief minister Anandiben Patel, Bhupendra Patel is MLA from the Ghatlodia seat, which was previously held by her. Patel a first-time MLA had won his seat by a margin of 117,000 votes in 2017, the largest margin in that poll defeating Congress candidate Shashikant Patel. He has previously served as chairman of the Standing Committee of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and had also chaired the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). Patel has also served as a municipal councilor in Ahmedabad. With Assembly polls in the state scheduled to take place in 2022, BJP went with Patel, a Patidar face for the Chief Minister. In Gujarat, the Patidars are a dominant caste with a sizeable control over the electoral votes. The community also dominates the political economy with a stronghold over education, realty and cooperative sectors. Rupani took charge as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on August 7, 2016. He currently represents Gujarat’s Rajkot West as MLA. In the 2017 state election, the BJP won 99 of the state’s 182 Assembly seats, Congress got 77 seats.
