Gujarat: Bhupendra Patel will have second innings as CM, elected leader of Legislature Party
Gandhinagar. The Legislature Party of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which retained power with a landslide victory in the recently concluded Gujarat Assembly polls, on Saturday formally elected incumbent Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel as its leader. With this, Patel will take charge of the state in his second consecutive term.
After the Legislature Party meeting, Patel met Governor Acharya Devvrat at the Raj Bhavan and staked claim to form the government. Patel staked claim to form the government two days after the results of the assembly elections were declared and he won 156 seats in the 182-member house.
The BJP said Patel will take oath as the state’s 18th chief minister on December 12 at the helipad ground near the new secretariat in Gandhinagar, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.
Talking to reporters after the Legislature Party meeting at ‘Kamalam’, the headquarters of BJP’s Gujarat unit, Patel said that his government’s priority would be to fulfill the promises made in the BJP’s election manifesto, including the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code.
“The newly elected legislators met today at ‘Kamalam’, where the name of Bhupendra Patel was proposed as the chief minister of Gujarat, which was approved unanimously,” the party said in a statement issued here. It was proposed by MLA Kanu Desai and supported by MLAs Shankar Chowdhary, Purnesh Modi, Manisha Vakil, Raman Patkar and party’s chief whip Pankaj Desai.
Senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, BS Yeddyurappa and Arjun Munda were present in the meeting of legislators as central observers. Patel said that the state government and the BJP would work effectively under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. He said that the people of Gujarat are satisfied that BJP will solve their issues with the same commitment as it works.
This is the seventh time in a row that the BJP government will be formed in Gujarat. Patel told reporters, “Gujarat has once again stamped on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and politics of development and reposed its faith in the BJP.” .
Patel got the command of the state after the resignation of Vijay Rupani in September last year. He said, “Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to include Gujarat in the league of developed countries is felt by all the MLAs and BJP’s state unit president CR Patil.”
The government and the party will work effectively under the guidance of Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah.” Asked about the BJP’s election promise of implementing the Uniform Civil Code, Patel said, “We have formed a (Uniform Civil Code) committee. and act on its recommendation. BJP will not leave any promise incomplete and has fulfilled the promise of Article-370 (removal from Jammu and Kashmir) and construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.
BJP leader Bharat Pandya said, “Rajnath Singh announced that Patel will continue to be the leader of the BJP Legislature Party. Singh praised Patel for his soft-spoken behavior and his work as chief minister.
He said that the public and the BJP MLAs liked the behavior of Patel and unanimously announced his name as the leader of the legislature party. The way for the new government in the state could be cleared.
