Modi’s farewell to be organised in Gujarat assembly: Speaker

Gujarat assembly speaker on Monday said a special session to bid a farewell to outgoing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who is all set to be sworn-in as prime minister of the country.

‘All MLAs want to greet him for whatever he has done for Gujarat’s development. All MLAs want to extend their wishes to Narendra Modi. Therefore it is decided to organise a session on 21 May at assembly conference hall,’ Gujarat assembly speaker Vaju Vala told reporters here on Monday.

Vala has also said that members of different parties will be given a slot to speak at Modi’s farewell function.

‘Members of other parties will also deliver speech. Whoever wants to greet him will speak. We will allot time to them. Even I wish that everybody to speak on this occasion,’ Vala said.

Gujarat state government has called a special session of the state assembly on May 21 to greet Modi who has been elected Prime Minister.

The BJP Legislature Party in Gujarat will also meet on 21 May to elect the successor to Modi, who is expected to tender his resignation as Gujarat chief minister soon after attending the farewell function.

Modi became Gujarat’s chief minister for the first time on 7 October 2001, by replacing senior BJP leader Keshubhai Patel and won three consecutive terms.

He is also scheduled to address a rally on 20 May in Maninagar from where he won the last three assembly elections.

Meanwhile, five newly-elected MLAs in Gujarat, four of BJP and one from Congress, who won the just-concluded bye-elections, were administered oath on Monday by assembly Speaker Vaju Vala.

Vala administered the oath of office and secrecy to Jasha Barad (Somnath), Rajendrasinh Chavda (Himmatnagar), Bavku Undhad (Lathi), Pankaj Mehta (Rapar) - all from BJP - and Harshad Ribadiya (Visavadar) of Congress in his Assembly chamber.

They took oath in the presence of deputy speaker Mangu Patel, BJP chief whip in the assembly Pankaj Desai and state ministers Ganpat Vasava and Vasan Ahir among others.

Besides winning all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, BJP has bagged four out of the seven Assembly constituencies where bye-polls were held on April 30 and results declared on May 16. The remaining three seats went to Opposition Congress.