In a major setback for senior cabinet minister in the Gujarat government Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, the Gujarat High Court has termed his victory in 2017 Gujarat assembly elections as void on the basis of malpractice and manipulation.
The chief ministers of 18 states where the BJP and its allies are in power and several union ministers are also likely to attend the ceremony.
The swearing-in ceremony, scheduled for 11am at Vidhansabha Ground in Gandhinagar, will be attended by both Prime Minister Narendra and BJP President Amit Shah.
The Gandhi scion is expected to hold meetings with all the newly-elected MLAs and leaders and party workers all across the state to review the election results.
Hardik and his supporters, who were on their bikes, had organised a roadshow on December 11, despite being denied permission by the district authorities.
One of the chief agendas to be picked up in this meeting is the chief ministerial faces of Gujarat and Himachal.
"The aspirations of our middle class are rising. We have to fulfill them," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while addressing party workers at the BJP headquarter in New Delhi.
BSE Sensex ended in the green on BJP wins in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, up 139 points at 33,601.68, after crashing over 800 points in early trade.
Though the BJP is set to return to power in the western state, a senior TRS leader saw the electoral verdict as being a setback to the party.
Trends from 181 seats in the state, gave the BJP a lead in over a 100 seats while the Congress was following with 69. The simple majority mark in the 182-member assembly is 92.
While PM Modi’s whirlwind tour of the state in the last leg is believed to have been the key factor behind the BJP’s winning run, there are ample reasons for Congress to introspect.
While senior Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Prakash Javadekar, said the polls trends reflect Modi's leadership, party leaders like Sakshi Maharaj attributed the outcome to the Prime Minister's "magic".
The BJP appeared to be on its way to retain power in the state, with trends from 182 seats giving it a lead in 110 while the Congress followed with 67.
Having lost Himachal Pradesh, the Congress will head into the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with governments in Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.
The ruling BJP was on Monday set to retain power in Gujarat, with its candidates on the victory lap in 104 of the 182 seats as the Congress again settled for the second place but with an improved showing
Trends at 10 am following six rounds of counting showed BJP leading at 107, the Congress at 71 and others at 4.
Of the 118 seats for which trends were available, the BJP is leading from 75 seats while the Congress is leading on 42, while an independent candidate is leading from one seat.
The poll body had on December 13 issued the show cause notice to Rahul Gandhi for "prima facie" violating the provisions under the election law and the model code.
The Election Commission has ordered repolling on Sunday in six booths of the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections.
The AAP on Friday questioned exit poll projections but said if results on December 18 indeed tallied with the predictions the BJP must have manipulated the EVMs.
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