India / Bhupendra Patel named Gujarat CM after Vijay Rupani resigns

Ahmedabad: Bhupendra Patel will be the chief minister of Gujarat, the party decided on Sunday in its meeting to pick up the successor for Vijay Rupani, a day after Rupani resigned. Bhupendra Patel is an MLA from the Ghatlodiya assembly constituency in Gujarat and had won by a margin of over 1,17,000 votes against Shashikant Patel from the Congress. He also chaired the standing committee of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. 

"Bhupendra Patel elected as the new leader of BJP legislative party," Union minister Tomar said adding that the swearing-in will take place soon. The meeting to decide a successor of Vijay Rupani began at 3pm in the presence of central observers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Joshi a day after Vijay Rupani tendered his resignation to the governor.

With a year left before the state goes to the polls, the removal of Rupani was seen as BJP's usual process of pre-poll shake-up taking feedback from the grassroots level. All eyes were on the choice that the party makes and observers believe that once again the party has gone for an unusual choice. Bhupendra Patel is not only the first time chief minister of the state but also the first time minister.

After Rupani resigned, several names were doing the rounds but choosing Bhupendra Patel was a surprise decision of the BJP as he was not among the frontrunners.  

Apart from Mansukh Mandaviya, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel's name was doing the rounds as a probable successor to which he reacted and said the new CM will have to be popular, strong, experienced and the one who is known and acceptable to all. "I am not here to express my personal opinion on the possible name. The exercise to elect the next chief minister is not just a work to fill in a vacancy. Gujarat should get a successful leadership so that the state can develop, keeping all together," PTI quoted Nitin Patel as saying. 

State BJP chief CR Paatil, who was also believed to be one of the contenders dismissed the speculation on Saturday and said he was not in the race. "Vijay Rupani has resigned from his post today. Naturally, there are a lot of names in the media for the new Chief Minister, including my name. I want to make it clear that I am not in any such race. Together with the new chief minister appointed by the party and Vijay Rupani, we will achieve our target of winning 182 out of 182 seats in the next assembly elections and work to strengthen the party," Paatil said.