Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Bhupendra Patel as the 17th Chief Minister of Gujarat, said sources on Sunday.
"Home Minister Amit Shah will attend the oath-taking ceremony of Bhupendra Patel as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in Gandhinagar on Monday," said the sources.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat invited Patel to take oath as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat at 2:20 pm on Monday.
"The newly appointed leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Legislature Party, Bhupendrabhai Patel, presented a proposal to form a new government under his leadership at the Raj Bhavan. Accepting the proposal, he was invited to take oath as the Chief Minister on September 13, 2021, at 2:20 pm," tweeted the Governor.
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.
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.
( With inputs from ANI )
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