Bhupendra Patel takes oath as Gujarat CM

Gandhinagar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhupendra Patel on Monday took oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for a second straight term in Gandhinagar in a grand ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states. Sixteen other ministers, including eight of cabinet rank, were also sworn in. The new entrants include 11 former ministers.

Patel was administered the oath as the 18th chief minister by Governor Acharya Devvrat at a function held at the Helipad Ground near the new Secretariat. The Cabinet ministers include Kanu Desai, Rishikesh Patel, Raghvji Patel, Balvantsinh Rajput, Kunvarji Bavaliya, Mulu Bera, Kuber Dindor, and Bhanuben Babariya. Harsh Sanghvi and Jagdish Vishwakarma were sworn in as ministers of State with an independent charge.The six other ministers of the State include Parshottam Solanki, Bachu Khabad, Mukesh Patel, Praful Pansheriya, Kuverji Halpati and Bhikhusinh Parmar. Of these 16 ministers, four belong to the Koli community (Bavaliya, Khabad, Solnaki and Mukesh Patel), three are Patidars (Raghavji, Rishikesh and Praful), three OBCs (Vishwakarma, Parmar and Bera) and two are tribals (Halpati and Dindor). Babariya belongs to a Scheduled Caste community, Sanghvi is Jain, Desai a Brahmin, and Rajput a Kshatriya.

PM Modi congratulated CM Patel and his new team in a tweet. "Congratulations to Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel on taking oath as CM of Gujarat. This is an energetic team which will take Gujarat to even newer heights of progress" the PM tweeted after the ceremony.

Of the 11 former ministers who were inducted into the Bhupendra Patel government 2.0, seven were part of the government led by him from September 2021 to December 2022. They are Harsh Sanghavi, Jagdish Vishwakarma, Kanubhai Desai, Rushikesh Patel, Raghavji Patel, Kuber Dindor and Mukesh Patel. Four others including Solanki, Bera, Khabad, and Bavaliya had served as ministers in the BJP governments in the past.