Vijay Rupani to swear-in for second term as Gujarat Chief Minister today

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AHMEDABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Rupani will on Tuesday take oath as Gujarat Chief Minister at Gandhinagar Sachivalaya Ground.

Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel have been elected as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of the state respectively.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Bihar Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar and other senior politicos will grace the swearing-in ceremony.

PM Modi is expected to arrive in Gujarat at 9 am and the ceremony will begin at 11 am.

Apart from Rupani and Nitin Patel, six to nine Cabinet and around 15 ministers of state are expected to take oath.

The names doing the rounds for Cabinet berths are Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Kaushik Patel, Ganpat Vasava, Dilip Thakor, Babubhai Bokhiria and Pradeepsinh Jadeja.

With 99 MLAs, the BJP has a simple majority in the 182-member Assembly, 16 less than its 2012 tally of 115. Independent MLA Ratansinh Rathod has declared his support to the ruling party. With this, the BJP now has the support of 100 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly. 

Opposition Congress, which had won 61 seats in 2012, managed to increase its tally to 77. The strength of the Congress and its allies in the new House is 80.