Jitu Vaghani, state BJP president, said that Union finance minister Arun Jaitley , senior BJP leader Saroj Pandey, state BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and national general secretary V Sathish will come to Gujarat on December 22 and meet the newly-elected MLAs to assess their opinion for selection of the new chief minister.
“Details of the new government’s swearing-in will be announced after that,” Vaghani said. Swearing in of the chief minister and the new cabinet is likely to be held on December 25, the birthday of BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
If sources in the BJP are to be believed, incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani and deputy chief minister Nitin Patel are likely to continue as CM and deputy CM. However, there is a possibility that the state unit of the party will choose some other leader for the post of party president. Names of deputy CM Nitin Patel; OBC leader and Karnataka governor Vaju Vala; Union ministers Parshotam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya are in circulation for the post.
Meanwhile, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani along with deputy chief minister Nitin Patel and other ministers of the state cabinet, submitted their resignation to Governor O P Kohli at Raj Bhavan on Thursday. As the Governor had dissolved the 13th assembly after the polls, constitutional formalities required that the chief minister along with his cabinet resign. This clears the way for election of a new CM and formation of a new cabinet . Rupani will continue as the caretaker CM till a new chief minister takes over.
Rupani thanked Kohli for showing co-operation with his cabinet. The Governor congratulated him on winning the assembly elections. Kohli further asked him to take care of the administration until the announcement of a new cabinet.
A group of senior officers of the Election Commission (EC) of India came to Gandhinagar on Thursday with notified final results of the Gujarat assembly elections. These officials will meet Governor O P Kohli on Friday and hand over the official record of the newly-elected MLAs for the 14th state assembly.