Newly-elected BJP MLAs to meet tomorrow, Bhupendra Patel to take oath as CM again

"The BJP Legislative Party meeting will be held at 10.00 am on Saturday in Gandhi Nagar, and an official announcement regarding the chief minister of Gujarat will be made," Desai said

New Delhi, Dec 09: The BJP MLAs in Gujarat will meet on Saturday to formally make an announcement on the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The saffron party registered a thumping victory in the state in assembly polls on Thursday.

A meeting of all newly-elected MLAs has been called on Saturday morning to formally elect the new chief minister of Gujarat. BJP Pankaj Desai, Chief Whip of BJP Pankaj Desai, said that Bhupendra Patel has submitted his resignation as Chief Minister of Gujarat. "Governor Acharya Devvrat has accepted the resignation of the chief minister and his cabinet," the news agency quoted Desai as saying in Gandhi Nagar on Friday.

"The BJP Legislative Party meeting will be held at 10.00 am on Saturday in Gandhi Nagar, and an official announcement regarding the chief minister of Gujarat will be made," Desai said. On Friday, BJP Gujarat state president CR Patil said that Bhupendra Patel is going to take oath as chief minister again on December 12.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah attend the swearing-in ceremony being planned in Gandhi Nagar.

The saffron party on Thursday returned to power by 156 seats in 182-member assembly.

It was a biggest victory in terms of seats since Gujarat was founded in 1960 as the BJP broke previous record of 149 seats by Madhav Singh Solanki's Congress government in 1985. The saffron party registered its seventh straight win in the state polls and became the second party to win seven straight assembly polls after the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

In the election, the Congress party ended in the second place, winning 17 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which made its debut with a high-decibel campaign managed to win 5 seats. Independents won three seats and the Samajwadi Party bagged up one.

Interestingly, the BJP improved its vote share to 53 per cent from 49 per cent last time, while the Congress party's vote share fell sharply from 42 per cent to 27 per cent, as a good chunk of its voters appeared to have switched to AAP, which secured 13 per cent of the votes counted.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, B S Yediyurappa and Arjun Munda were appointed on Friday as central observers for the meeting of the party's new MLAs in Gujarat to pick the next chief minister.