Front Page   

Modi hints at small cabinet

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR Dec. 18. The Gujarat Governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, has invited the leader of the BJP legislature party, Narendra Modi, to form the Government in the State.

The invitation was handed over to Mr. Modi when a BJP delegation led by the State unit president, Rajendrasinh Rana, called on the Governor this afternoon and handed over a letter informing him about the election of Mr. Modi as the legislature party leader. The delegation included former Chief Ministers, Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta, and senior party leaders.

Later, Mr. Bhandari said he had invited Mr. Modi to form the Government and had asked him to send him at the earliest the list of his Cabinet colleagues to be sworn in with him on December 22.

Talking to presspersons, Mr. Modi declined to indicate the number of Ministers to be sworn in with him but hinted that the Cabinet would be small. The swearing-in would be held at the Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad instead of Gandhinagar as was the normal practice, to enable about two lakh people to witness the ceremony which would be open to all, he said.

Mr. Modi said a brief Assembly session was likely to be convened before month-end for the newly-elected members to take oath. However, a date would be decided after consulting his Cabinet members and the Leader of the Opposition, who would be elected by the Congress Legislature Party here tomorrow. Mr. Rana said the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit here on Sunday to witness the ceremony was yet to be finalised because of ``protocol'' problems. But he did not elaborate.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Three sentenced to death in Parliament attack case
• Interest on kharif loans waived in drought-hit States
• PM toeing RSS-VHP line: CPI(M)
• Lawyers defy SC, strike work
• Modi hints at small cabinet
• Grenade blast: BSF men injured
• JPC may pin UTI fiasco on Sinha
• CJI won't name judge for Tehelka probe panel
• World Cup probables

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu