The Legislature Party meeting of the BJP in Gujarat will be held at the Town Hall in Gandhinagar on Monday, where the newly-elected party MLAs will elect Narendra Modi as their leader. He is expected to be sworn-in as the Chief Minister for a third consecutive time on December 27. Senior leader Venkaiah Naidu is likely to attend the Legislature Party meeting.State BJP spokesman Vijay Rupani said on Sunday that the swearing-in ceremony would be held in the afternoon on December 27 at the sprawling Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. BJP’s national leaders like L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain are expected to attend the function. Meanwhile, a BJP insider said Modi was likely to go for a small ministry and later expand it. Since as many as seven of his ministers, including three of the Cabinet rank, have lost, Modi may induct some new faces. Among the new faces likely to find berths include Modi confidantes Dilip Sanghani and Pradeepsinhji Jadeja who have won from Amreli and Asarwa, respectively. Besides, former ministers Jay Narayan Vyas, Fakirbhai Vaghela and Nitin Patel, who have also made it to the Assembly, may be inducted. Vyas,Vaghela and Patel were Cabinet-rank ministers in the Keshubhai Patel Government, holding Narmada, Social Welfare and Irrigation portfolios respectively. Some of the Ministers of State in the Modi Cabinet, who have been re-elected, might be elevated to the Cabinet-rank, he added.
