- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Bhupendra Patel on Monday (12) took oath as the chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat in a grand ceremony which was attended by top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including prime minister Narendra Modi, Indian home minister Amit Shah, and other central ministers in the state capital of Gandhinagar.
Chief ministers of a number of BJP-ruled states of the country were also present.
The BJP secured a landslide victory in the recently held elections on December 1 and 5, by winning 156 out of 182 seats in Gujarat’s assembly with 53 per cent vote share. It is the best performance that any party has shown in Gujarat elections and not even Modi could produce anything like it during his 13 year of service as the state’s chief minister.
Both its major opposition parties — the Indian National Congress and Aam Aadmi Party — won only 17 and five seats, respectively.
The 60-year-old Patel, who replaced Vijay Rupani as the chief minister last year, resigned as the chief minister along with his entire cabinet on Saturday (10), two days after the results came out, and met governor Acharya Devvrat and staked the claim to form a new government.
Patel himself won from Ghatlodia seat in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat with a major margin of 1.92 lakh (0.19 million) votes in the elections.
