Ahmedabad:
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who resigned as a formality after yesterday’s election win, will be nominated for the job once again tomorrow at a meeting of the BJP legislators ahead of his swearing-in ceremony on Monday, the party said.
Mr Patel filed his resignation along with his entire cabinet on Friday to pave the way for the formation of a new government in the state after the ruling BJP’s landslide victory in the state elections.
The BJP registered a historic victory in Gujarat by scoring a record 156 seats in the 182-member assembly.
Mr Patel, accompanied by Gujarat BJP chief C R Paatil and party’s chief whip Pankaj Desai, handed over his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar.
It was just a formality as the party has already announced that Mr Patel will be the next chief minister of the state ahead of the polls.
On Thursday, the state BJP chief had reiterated that Mr Patel would keep the top post in the state and his swearing-in ceremony would be held on Monday.
“The governor had accepted the resignation of the chief minister and his cabinet. Till the formation of the new government, Patel will remain as the caretaker chief minister,” Mr Desai told reporters outside Raj Bhavan.
In a letter, Mr Paatil informed the governor that the BJP, which has won 156 out of 182 seats, has called a legislative party meeting of all the newly-elected MLAs on Saturday morning to elect a new leader, who will eventually become the next Chief Minister.
“The meeting of MLAs will be held at 10 am on Saturday at the party headquarters Kamalam in Gandhinagar. The governor will be informed about the election of a new leader in the afternoon, for which we have sought time from him. The swearing in of the new chief minister and his cabinet will take place as per the governor’s instructions,” Mr Desai said.
Mr Paatil had announced that the swearing-in ceremony of the new government will take place on Monday at the Helipad Ground in Gandhinagar.