Gandhinagar: The BJP on Friday decided to stay with Vijay Rupani as Chief Minister of Gujarat and Nitin Patel as his deputy.In a meeting of newly elected party legislators, supervised by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Mr. Rupani was chosen unanimously to be the Chief Minister with Nitin Patel remaining as Deputy Chief Minister. The meeting was also attended by BJP General Secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Saroj Pandey.
Mr Rupani who had taken over as Gujarat Chief Minister from Anandi Patel in August 2016 won from Rajkot West assembly segment in the recently concluded assembly polls with a margin a margin of over 25,000 votes. Mr. Patel had retained his Mahesana assembly seat, defeating Jivabhai Patel of the Congress by around 7,000 votes. The BJP won 99 seats, down from its 2012 tally of 115 seats, while the Congress got 77 seats, up from its previous tally of 61 seats, in the state assembly polls. (UNI)