Modi expands Ministry; 18 Ministers inducted

Gandhinagar, Jan 4 (UNI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today expanded his ten-day-old Ministry by inducting 18 Ministers, nine of them of Cabinet rank and as many Ministers of state.

The new Ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Naval Kishore Sharma at a ceremony here.

The new Cabinet Ministers who were sworn-in were Vajubhai Vala, Narottam Patel, Anandiben Patel, Nitin Patel, Dilip Sanghani, Fakir Waghela, Jaynarayan Vyas, Ramanlal Vora and Mangubhai Patel.

The nine Ministers of state were Amit Shah, Saurabh Patel, Jashvantsingh Bhabhor, Kiritsingh Rana, Purshottam Solanki, Parbat Patel, Dr Mayaben Kodnani, Jaysingh Chauhan and Vasan Ahir.

Twelve Ministers in the previous Modi government failed to find berths in the new Ministry. They include Ashok Bhatt, Bharat Barot, Jashuben Korat, Murubhai Bera and Anil Patel. Seven other former Ministers K Jadeja, Kaushik Patel, Bhupendrasingh Chudasama, Chhatrasingh Mori, Dilip Thakor, Prabhatsingh Chauhan and Ratilal Surejiya had lost the elections.

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