Gujarat: Bhupendra Patel govt's new ministers to take oath today

New ministers of the Bhupendra Patel-led government in Gujarat will take oath on Thursday at Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar amid speculation that the BJP may induct new faces into the state cabinet, with just over a year left for the state Assembly polls.

There has been suspense over ministerial faces, whose names have not been declared so far, in the backdrop of the BJP's "no repeat" formula.

Earlier, the ruling BJP announced that the swearing-in ceremony would be held on Wednesday afternoon and preparations for the same had started at the governor's house in the state capital.

However, the plan was later dropped all of a sudden and banners of the swearing-in ceremony were also taken down.

Neither the BJP nor the state government gave any reason for the postponement.

On Wednesday evening, the Chief Minister's Office announced that the swearing-in ceremony of new ministers will be held at 1.30 pm at the Raj Bhavan in the state capital Gandhinagar on Thursday.

Patel (59), a first-time MLA from Ahmedabad, took over as the new Gujarat chief minister on Monday after the sudden resignation of Vijay Rupani last Saturday.

According to sources, the BJP leadership has decided to try new faces this time and drop almost all the past ministers, even some senior ones, who were part of the previous Rupani government. However, there was no official word from the BJP about it.

Many believe that the "no repeat" formula has been proposed keeping in mind the 2022 Assembly polls as the BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat for more than two decades, wants to go to voters with a clean slate.