Narendra Modi on Wednesday took oath for the fourth consecutive time as Chief Minister of Gujarat, along with seven Cabinet ministers and nine Ministers of State (MoS).
Governor Kamla Beniwal administered the oath of office and secrecy at a glittering, star-studded ceremony at Sardar Patel Stadium here to Modi and his ministerial colleagues amid slogans by thousands of BJP workers.
The Cabinet ministers, in the order they took oath are Nitin Patel, Anandiben Patel, Ramanlal Vora, Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, Saurabh Patel, Ganpat Vasava and Babubhai Bokhiria. The MoS are Purushottam Solanki, Parbat Patel, Mrs Vasuben Trivedi, Pradeepsinh Jadeja, Leeladhar Vaghela, Rajnikant Patel, Govind Patel, Nanubhai Vanani and Jayantibhai Kawadia.
Saurabh Patel has been promoted to the Cabinet rank while Vasava, Speaker in the outgoing Assembly, has been inducted into the Council.
Among those present on the occasion were Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (MP), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), J. Jayalalithaa (Tamil Nadu) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab). Raj and Uddhav Thackeray, leading the two Shiv Senas in neighbouring Maharashtra, BJP leaders LK Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, besides RPI leader Ramdas Athavale, were also present.
Modi’s family members, including his mother Heeraben, were present.
Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi was absent but the State’s BJP chief C P Thakur was present. No leader from the Janata Dal (United), BJP’s partner in NDA, or its Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, attended the function.
The BJP Government, whose seven ministers lost their seats in a rather pyrrhic victory in the Assembly elections, including technocrat-spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas, has two challenging tasks to handle now: the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit in January and the 2013-14 Budget, scheduled for March next year.