Bhupendra Patel to take oath as Gujarat CM on Monday; PM Modi to attend

Bhupendra Patel has emerged victorious from Ghatlodia seat and set to take oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on Monday.

Ahmedabad, Dec 08: Bhupendra Patel, who registered a second straight win from the urban constituency of Ghatlodia, will take oath as Chief Minister of Gujarat for the second time on 12th December.

He will take oath at 2 pm on Monday and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will take part in the oath ceremony, State BJP Chief CR Patil said.

"The results of Gujarat Elections are quite clear. People have made up their minds to further continue with the journey of development in Gujarat. We humbly accept the mandate of the people. Every worker of BJP is committed to public service," ANI quoted Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel in a tweet.

Patidar-dominated Ghatlodia, which is part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, has given Gujarat two chief ministers - Bhupendra Patel and Anandiben Patel. It is a stronghold of BJP. In 2017, despite the Patidar quota agitation, Bhupendra Patel had won the seat with a huge margin of 1.17 lakh votes.

Ghatlodia, which has around 3.70 lakh voters, became a new assembly constituency following the delimitation exercise undertaken in 2012. Earlier, it was a part of Sarkhej constituency. In 2012, Anandiben Patel - then chief minister of Gujarat -- had won the seat with margin of more than 1.1 lakh. To make an impact in Ghatlodia, the Congress party fielded noted lawyer and activist Amiben Yagnik whose door-to-door campaign focussed on price rise, unemployment and corruption during Patel's tenure as CM.

Besides Patidars, the other dominant social group comprise the Rabaris, who are classified as OBC and are mostly split between Congress and BJP.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party is set for its best ever victory tally in the Gujarat Assembly polls as it is leading in over 150 seats in 182-member Assembly.

"It is a victory of the party's double-engine development agenda. The massive verdict reflects people's trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. It is a victory of the agenda of development that the party has carried out in the state," Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas told PTI.

"The Congress should learn its lessons now as negative politics won't take them anywhere. The Congress has been wiped out by the masses from the state," he said. Commenting on the new poll entrant Aam Aadmi Party, Vyas said the AAP's presence was limited to only social media and a section of the urban population.

With inputs from PTI