NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, SEP 12
Aiming to revamp the state government and the party unit in Gujarat, the BJP high command has deputed two central observers as well a senior office-bearer. A meeting of BJP legislators will be held in the afternoon to select a successor for Vijay Rupani here on Sunday, a party spokesman said.
The meeting will be held at 3 pm, the sources said. The new leader selected by the legislators will meet the governor and stake claim to form the government after the legislators’ meeting, they said.
“The BJP legislature party meeting will take place at 3 pm in presence of central observers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Joshi and party general secretary Tarun Chaug. The new chief minister of the state will be decided at the meeting,” Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas said.
“The new leader will stake claim to form the government in a meeting with the state governor and a date of taking the oath will be decided later,” Vyas said.
BJP has appointed Union ministers Tomar and Joshi as observers for the legislature party meeting to elect a new chief minister.
Tomar met state BJP chief C R Paatil on Sunday morning. “We have come here to hold further discussions on the issue (new chief minister). We will discuss it with state BJP leaders,” Tomar said at the airport.
There is talk that Praful Khoda Patel, administrator of the union territories of Lakshadweep and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, is among the top contenders.
Also reportedly being considered are Parshottam Rupala, the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Health Minister. Both of them also belong to the Patel or Patidar community.
The names of Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and state agriculture minister RC Faldu, both from the Patel community, are also doing the rounds.
