Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, firebrand Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani were among the newly elected legislators taking their oath here on Tuesday.
With this oath ceremony, the formal functioning of the 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly has begun.
Soon after taking oath, Congress supported Independent MLA from Vadgam, Jignesh Mevani, told journalists that he would insist on tabling of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) reports in the beginning of the assembly session.
For the last several years, the ruling BJP had been tabling the CAG reports at the end of the session, thus preventing any discussion in the assembly about the discrepancies in funds and accounts pointed out in therein.
As many as 176 of the 182 newly elected legislators took their oath as MLAs at a simple ceremony held at the Sabarmati Hall of the Secretariat complex Swarnim Sankul I, the administrative block which has the offices of the Cabinet ministers.
The oath ceremony was held at the Sabarmati Hall as the Assembly building is currently undergoing a Rs 120-crore renovation.
The newly elected legislators were administered their oath by pro-tem Speaker Nimaben Acharya, who was earlier administered the oath by Governor O P Kohli at Raj Bhavan earlier in the day.
Six newly elected MLAs could not attend the oath ceremony due to their personal engagements, including being abroad.
However, independent MLA from Morva Hadaf tribal seat, Bhupendra Khant was also administered the oath despite the Gujarat Tribal Development Commission cancelling his tribal status.
Soon after his election, the tribal MLA had declared his support to the Opposition Congress which has 77 legislators in the 182-member Gujarat assembly.