Vijay Rupani sworn-in as Gujarat CM

Gandhinagar, Aug 7 (ANI): Vijay Rapani was sworn-in as the Gujarat Chief Minister in a ceremony attended by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass here on Sunday. Rupani, who yesterday resigned as the Gujarat BJP president to take charge of the top post in the state, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor O.P. Kohli. Nitin Patel was sworn-in as Rupani's deputy and 23 others, including Bhupendra Chudaai, Ganpat Vasava, Babu Bokharia, Atmaram Parmar, Chiman Sapariya, Dilip Thakor, Jayesh Radadia, took the oath for spots in the state cabinet. This is the first instance in Gujarat of a deputy Chief Minister in a BJP government. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, BJP chief Amit Shah, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Rajasthan counterpart Vasundhara Raje were among those who attended the ceremony held at the Mahatma Mandi here.. Former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel also graced the event. Rupani, who represents Rajkot West in Gujarat Assembly, yesterday staked claim to form the government. Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for reposing faith in him, Rupani earlier asserted that his team is fully committed to harnessing aspirations of the poor, marginalised, farmers and youngsters. The BJP central leadership, which had come under sharp criticism post Anandiben Patel's resignation, earlier made it clear that a state MLA would be assigned the top job. (ANI)