By IANS
Ahmedabad : Narendra Modi will take oath as Gujarat chief minister for the third time at a grand ceremony here Tuesday afternoon attended by thousands of his supporters.
Modi, who Sunday led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to victory in the state, winning 117 of the 182 seats, will be sworn in at around 1.45 p.m., party sources here said.
Top central leaders of the BJP, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who celebrates his birthday Dec 25, are likely to attend the ceremony. Also expected are chief ministers from BJP ruled states, leaders from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as some leaders of the corporate world.
State BJP president Purshottam Rupala said invitations had been sent to veteran leaders, including party chief Rajnath Singh.
According to Rupala, Modi would be the only one taking oath of office Tuesday at the function held at the Sardar Patel Stadium in the heart of the city, where the same ceremony was held in December 2002. The cabinet would be expanded later.
“We have made preparations at the stadium. We expected a crowd of 100,000 this time,” said Jagdish Patel, the city unit president of the party.
There were plans earlier to hold the function in Rajkot, the main city of the Saurashtra region that was the hub of anti-Modi dissidents in the party.