All ministers in the Gujarat government resigned on Thursday. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will soon give their resignations to the Governor. A ceremony to swear in the new cabinet will be held on Friday at 11:30 am in Gandhinagar.
Out of the 16 ministers, 8 are expected to be replaced. The current cabinet has 17 ministers, including Chief Minister Patel. There are 8 cabinet ministers and 8 Ministers of State (MoS).
All BJP members and ministers must stay in Gandhinagar for two days. Those who might join the new cabinet have been informed by phone.
The swearing-in ceremony will have key BJP leaders, Amit Shah and JP Nadda, attending.
Preparations for the ceremony are starting at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. Amit Shah will arrive in Gujarat tonight around 9 pm, and JP Nadda will come on Friday morning. Sunil Bansal, a key leader, will also arrive today.
Later, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will return from Mumbai, and at 8 pm, a meeting will take place at his home to collect the resignations to be submitted to Governor Devvrat Acharya, along with a list of new ministers.
There are discussions about appointing leaders wo defected from the Congress party to ministerial positions. It is expected that 7-10 of the current ministers will be replaced, keeping 5-7 in their roles. New possible ministers include Arjun Modhwadia, Alpesh Thakor, CJ Chavda, and Hardik Patel, who have come from Congress.
Jayesh Radadiya and Jitu Vaghani from Saurashtra may also get cabinet positions. Special attention is being given to the Patidar and Thakor communities from North Gujarat.
Ministers likely to be replaced include Purushottam Solanki (Fisheries and Animal Husbandry), Bachubhai Khabar (Panchayat), Mukesh Patel (Forest and Environment), Bhikhusinh Parmar (Food and Civil Supplies), and Kunwarji Halpati (Tribal Development).