GUJARAT NEW CM DEPUTY CM NAME DECLARED.

GANDHINAGAR: Vijay Rupani was on Friday retained as Gujarat chief minister while Nitin Patel will continue as deputy CM. The decision was taken after the newly elected Gujarat BJP MLAs met on Friday to choose the new chief minister under the observation of senior party leaders Arun Jaitely and Saroj Pandey.

Earlier, State BJP president Jitu Vaghani had said that Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, senior BJP leader Saroj Pandey, state BJP in charge Bhupendra Yadav and national general secretary V Sathish would meet the newly-elected MLAs on Friday to assess their opinion for selection of the new chief minister..

“Details of the new government’s swearing-in will be announced after that,” Vaghani had said. Swearing-in of the chief minister and the new cabinet is likely to be held on December 25, the birthday of BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Sources in the BJP had indicated earlier that incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani and deputy chief minister Nitin Patel were likely to continue as CM and deputy CM. However, there is a possibility that the state unit of the party will choose some other leader for the post of party president. Names of deputy CM Nitin Patel; OBC leader and Karnataka governor Vaju Vala; Union ministers Parshotam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya are in circulation for the post.

Earlier, Rupani along with Patel and other ministers of the state cabinet had submitted their resignation to Governor O P Kohli at Raj Bhavan on Thursday. As the Governor had dissolved the 13th assembly after the polls, constitutional formalities required that the chief minister along with his cabinet resign. This cleared the way for election of a new CM and formation of a new cabinet. Rupani was to continue as the caretaker CM till a new chief minister takes over.

Rupani thanked Kohli for showing co-operation with his cabinet. The Governor congratulated him on winning the assembly elections. Kohli further asked him to take care of the administration until the announcement of a new cabinet.

⇥EC to hand over poll results to Governor.

A group of senior officers of the Election Commission (EC) of India came to Gandhinagar on Thursday with notified final results of the Gujarat assembly elections. These officials will meet Governor O P Kohli on Friday and hand over the official record of the newly-elected MLAs for the 14th state assembly.