Ahmedabad, December 26
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his 16-member Cabinet, seven Cabinet-rank ministers and nine ministers of state, were sworn in today.

This is Modi’s fourth consecutive innings as Chief Minister of Gujarat since he took over the office in October, 2001, replacing his predecessor Keshubhai Patel.

Governor Kamala Beniwal administered the oath of office to Modi and his ministers at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad in the presence of a galaxy of leaders from all over the country besides around one lakh supporters.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters after his swearing-in at the Sardar Patel Navrangpura Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. — AFP

Almost all senior leaders of the BJP were present at the brief ceremony. Also, chief ministers of BJP and NDA-ruled states, including J Jayalalitha (Tamil Nadu), Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab), Shivraj Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Panikkar (Goa), Jagdish Shettar (Karnataka), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Arjun Munda (Jharkhand) were present.

Among the BJP leaders present were president Nitin Gadkari, veteran leader LK Advani, leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushama Swaraj and Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, former presidents Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu, women’s wing chief Smriti Irani, party spokespersons Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sethuraman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain.

BJP ally Republican Party of India president Ramdas Athwale, Shiv Sena chief Udhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, Haryana leader Om Prakash Chautala, and pro-BJP film stars Vinod Khanna and Vivek Oberoi, were also present. While BJP Bihar unit chief CP Thakur attended the ceremony, neither Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, known for his dislike for Modi, nor BJP leaders in his Cabinet turned up for the ceremony.

The turn-up of leaders at the event was indicative of the fact that Modi’s stature had increased manifold and that he might not face much resistance both within the BJP as well as the NDA alliance, except perhaps from Bihar, should he move over to the national political platform before the 2014 parliamentary elections.

In the selection of his ministers, Modi had relied on his old team, as 10 of them are from the outgoing Cabinet, while only six new faces have made it to the Cabinet. Among the former ministers left out are veteran finance minister Vajubhai Vala, the number two man in his last Cabinet who created a record of sorts by presenting 18 annual budgets or vote on accounts since the BJP first came to power in the state in 1995, and water supply minister Narottam Patel.

Sources said Vala is being tipped to take over as the state BJP president in place of RC Faldu who resigned following his defeat in the state Assembly.

Narottam Patel is likely to be offered the post of the Speaker of the Assembly since the Speaker in the outgoing House, Ganpat Vasava, has been inducted in the ministry this time.

Modi has not hesitated in inducting ministers with criminal background, including some facing serious criminal cases in courts. Two of them, Babubhai Bokhiriya (Cabinet rank) and Purshottam Solanki (minister of state), are giant killers.

Bokhiriya defeated state Congress president Arjun Modhvadia in Porbandar, while Solanki defeated Congress second-in-command and leader of the Opposition in the outgoing House Shaktisinh Gohil in Bhavnagar rural constituency.

Besides Bokhiriya, Solanki and Vasava, Modi’s erstwhile Cabinet colleagues Anandiben Patel, Nitin Patel, Ramanlal Vora, Saurabh Patel, Bhupendrasinh Chudasma (minister from 2002-2007), Parbat Patel, Vasuben Trivedi, Pradeepsinh Jadeja 
and Liladhar Vaghela have been retained in the new Cabinet, while Rajnikant Patel, Govind Patel, Nanubhai Vanani and Jayantibhai Kavadiya will be the new faces.