Manas Dasgupta
GANDHINAGAR, Sept 11: In a sudden development, the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday submitted his resignation paving the way for a change of guard in the state that would face the state Assembly elections 15 months later.
Rupani met the Governor Acharya Devrat and submitted his resignation. “I have resigned after conveying my wishes to the party leadership to let me work in the organisation,” Rupani told the media persons. He said he had willingly stepped down from the post after a decision in this regard was taken by the party in the “larger interest of Gujarat”.
He also expressed his gratitude to the party high command for giving him an opportunity to be the CM for a little over five years in Gujarat.
The party may announce his replacement by Saturday evening or Sunday. The BJP general secretary B. L. Santosh, in-charge of the Gujarat affairs, is learnt to be holding confabulations with party leaders and MLAs at the state party headquarter “Shri Kamalam” in Gandhinagar.
Interacting with media persons outside Raj Bhavan after tendering his resignation, Rupani said, “With my resignation, the party’s new leadership will get an opportunity. And we will all take Gujarat to new heights under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
When questioned asked his sudden resignation, Rupani said, “It is a natural process in our party. The party worker gets different responsibilities at different times. We do not call it a post, we call it a responsibility. Now, I will shoulder whatever responsibility the party gives me.”
“This is a relay race. Everybody runs and moves ahead. I had the responsibility for five years. I was running. Now, I will give the flag to someone else. (Now) He will run,” Rupani added.
In response to another question on the reasons behind his resignation, Rupani said, “The party has taken this decision in the larger interest of Gujarat. And I hail that.”
Rupani also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the face of the party, and the next Gujarat Assembly elections, which will be held by December 2022, will be fought under his leadership.
For some time, an undercurrent within the BJP legislature party was on that the Rupani administration was not proving effective enough in handling various difficult situation and fighting the coming elections under his leadership might prove disadvantageous for the ruling party. The party high command was also believed to have been unhappy over his “lackluster administration” and contemplating a change of guard. There, however, had been no open revolt against his leadership which made his sudden resignation from the office a surprise.
Rupani had taken over as the Chief Minister in August, 2016, after the sudden resignation of the then C. M. Anandiben Patel, who is now the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. The party had won the last Assembly elections in 2017 under Rupani’s leadership but with a depleted number of seats. It barely managed to win a clear majority though its ranks swelled later because of resignations by about a dozen Congress elected members many of whom joined the BJP and returned to the state Assembly winning byelections.
Rupani resigned hours after attending the ground breaking ceremony of an educational complex of the Patidar community on the outskirts of Gandhinagar. The Prime minister had made a virtual address at the event.
His resignation has come amid talks of the Patidar community distancing itself from the BJP. Some top community leaders have publicly said the next chief minister of Gujarat should be a Patidar. It also comes amid a perceived clash of leadership between Rupani and newly-appointed party state president C R Paatil.