Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expanded his Cabinet, inducting 18 ministers, nearly two weeks after leading the Bharatiya Janata Party to a thumping victory in the assembly polls.
Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at a function on Friday morning in the lawns of Gujarat assembly in Gandhinagar.
Nine of the ministers sworn in were of Cabinet rank. Among those who took oath were some known faces like Vaju Vala, Narottam Patel, Anandiben Patel, Amit Shah, Saurab Patel, Ramanlal Vora, Mangubhai Patel, Jaswantsinh Babhor and Purshottam Solanki.
Nitin Patel, Dilip Sanghani, Fakir Vaghela, Jaynarayan Vyas, Maya Kodnani, Kiritsinh Rana, Parbat Patel, Jaysinh Chauhan and Vasan Ahir were among the new faces.
The BJP had retained power in the state winning 117 seats in the 182-member Assembly.
Modi was the only one to take oath at a grand function organised by the party on December 25.
Seven ministers of the previous Modi government have lost the elections. Prominent among them were Kaushik Patel (Revenue) I K Jadeja (Urban Development) and Bhupendrasinh Chudasama (Agriculture).
