News Analysis India

Tag: gujarat CM

  • First-time MLA Bhupendra Patel rises through ranks to become next Gujarat chief minister

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Unanimously elected as the BJP legislature party leader on Sunday, Bhupendra Patel, a first-time MLA, is known as a soft-spoken worker of the party, who has made his way up in the state politics from the municipality level.

    Patel (59), who will replace Vijay Rupani as the chief minister of Gujarat, had contested his maiden Assembly election from Ghatlodia constituency in Ahmedabad in 2017 and won it by a margin of over 1.17 lakh votes, which was a record during that election.

    Fondly called as ‘Dada’ by many, he is considered to be close to former Gujarat chief minister and now Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel. He represents the Assembly constituency that is part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat represented by Union minister Amit Shah.

    In the past, Patel had served as the chairman of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) between 2015 and 2017. Before that, he was also the standing committee chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the largest urban local body in Gujarat, between 2010 and 2015.

    People close to him know Patel, who holds a diploma in civil engineering, as a smiling face, who is well-connected to the grass roots. Before contesting the Assembly election, he was active in local politics and became a member of Memnagar Municipality in Ahmedabad district, serving as its president twice.

    Patel is also a trustee of Sardardham Vishwa Patidar Kendra, an organisation to dedicated to the socio-economic development of the Patidar community.

  • BJP high command to decide new chief minister for Gujarat: Deputy CM Nitin Patel

    By ANI

    AHMEDABAD: Amid speculation by media over probable candidates of Gujarat Chief Minister’s post after Vijay Rupani stepped down from the position, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel clarified that the party’s high command will finalise the name of next Chief Minister.

    “A Chief Minister should be someone who is popular, experienced and takes everyone together. There are rumours in the media that I will be made Chief Minister, but the fact is that the BJP high command will decide who will be the Chief Minister,” Patel told reporters here today.

    He further claimed that the Rupani voluntarily resigned from his position on Saturday. “Vijay Rupani voluntarily resigned from the post. He did not take the decision under any pressure. The central observers sent by the party high command are taking the views of senior BJP leaders on who should be made the Chief Minister. The decision will be taken at the meeting today. All the MLAs have been instructed to be present at the meeting,” he said.

    Patel arrived at the party’s headquarters, Shree Kamalam in Gandhinagar for the state BJP legislative party meet which is being held to discuss the leadership issue. BJP’s central observers Pralhad Joshi and Narendra Singh Tomar have also arrived at the office. State BJP chief CR Paatil was also seen arriving for the meeting.

    Assembly polls in the state are scheduled to take place in 2022.

    On August 7, 2016, Rupani took charge as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He currently represents Gujarat’s Rajkot West as MLA. In the 2017 state election, the BJP won 99 of the state’s 182 Assembly seats, Congress got 77 seats.

  • Gujarat BJP legislators to meet; decision on Vijay Rupani’s successor likely today

    By PTI

    GANDHINAGAR: The suspense over who will succed Vijay Rupani as Gujarat chief minister will be over after a meeting of BJP legislators here later on Sunday, party sources said.

    Central observer Narendra Singh Tomar, who will attend the meeting, met state BJP chief C R Paatil on Sunday morning.

    BJP has appointed Union ministers Tomar and Prahlad Joshi as observers for the legislature party meeting to elect a new chief minister.

    ​ALSO READ | BJP axes CM Vijay Rupani a year ahead of Gujarat election

    “We have come here to hold further discussions on the issue (new chief minister). We will discuss it with state BJP leaders,” Tomar said at the airport.

    “I will hold consultations with Gujarat leaders, then the central leadership will take a decision,” said Joshi.

    BJP general secretary Tarun Chaag has also reached Ahmedabad.

    There is talk that Praful Khoda Patel, administrator of the union territories of Lakshadweep and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, is among the top contenders.

    Also reportedly being considered are Parshottam Rupala, the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Health Minister.

    BJP’s Central observer @JoshiPralhad said that the legislative party meeting will be held today to discuss the Gujarat chief minister name.@NewIndianXpress @Sunday_Standard
    — Sudhir Suryawanshi (@ss_suryawanshi) September 12, 2021
    Both of them also belong to the Patel or Patidar community.

    The names of Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and state agriculture minister RC Faldu, both from the Patel community, are also doing the rounds.

    Rupani (65) on Saturday resigned from the post, his sudden announcement coming over a year before the state goes to polls.

    It is not clear what prompted the development in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state where elections to the 182-member Assembly are due in December 2022.

    Rupani (65), the fourth chief minister to demit office in BJP-ruled states during the coronavirus pandemic, was sworn in as chief minister — his second stint as CM – in December 2017.

    “I have resigned as chief minister of Gujarat,” Rupani told reporters after meeting Governor Acharya Devvrat and submitting his resignation letter.

    “I was allowed to serve the state for five years. I have contributed to the development of the state. I will further do whatever is asked by my party,” said Rupani, who completed five years in office on August 7 this year.

    He first became the chief minister on August 7, 2016, following the resignation of incumbent Anandiben Patel, and continued in the office after the BJP’s victory in the 2017 Assembly elections.

  • Vijay Rupani eased out as BJP continues with governance reset, acknowledges ground feedback

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The reset button that the BJP has pressed on governance in the wake of the COVID-19 wave, which also saw a major overhaul by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his own Cabinet, continues as Vijay Rupani on Saturday became the fourth chief minister to go as the party works to refurbish its governance model.

    The party’s decision to drop Rupani as Gujarat’s Chief Minister, after easing out two chief ministers in Uttarakhand and one in Karnataka in the last few months, contrasts starkly with its decision to remain unyielding in backing its chief ministerial picks during Modi’s first term despite trenchant voices against some of them.

    Political watchers believe the changes highlight the BJP leadership’s analysis of the ground feedback and its readiness to address them, even though a final word on the shake-up can only be delivered at the elections.

    Anandiben Patel was the only chief minister who was asked by the party to quit during the 2014-19 period.

    ALSO READ | Vijay Rupani’s soft-spoken image may have been his undoing as Gujarat CM, say observers

    The party had cited its convention of retiring those over 75 years of age from government positions to replace her with Rupani as Gujarat’s chief minister in 2016.

    Over five years later, Rupani (65) resigned on Saturday amid question marks over his credentials as an administrator.

    While the party did not immediately announce Rupani’s replacement, the recent spate of changes effected by the party at the central government or in states ruled by it has marked a return of more conventional politics with the standard political fault-lines of caste identity pushing the urge to experiment to the background.

    The enhanced share of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) at 27 and dalits at 12 in the Union Council of Ministers following its expansion in July was showcased as a major highlight.

    The saffron party also replaced Lingayat stalwart B S Yediyurappa as Karnataka CM with another Lingayat leader B S Bommai.

    In Uttarakhand, it replaced two Thakur chief ministers with another Thakur leader, and speculation was rife that Rupani, who comes from a numerically insignificant Jain community, may make way for a Patidar, the largest community in the western state.

    ALSO READ | Who will replace Vijay Rupani? Speculation over Nitin Patel, Mansukh Mandaviya as next Gujarat CM

    In keeping with its practice of brooding younger leaders at key positions since Modi became its preeminent leader, the BJP has vested a much fresher generation of leaders with power at the Centre as well as states.

    The party had undertaken an extensive governance and organizational feedback exercise as its handling of the second wave of the COVID-19 drew criticism from many quarters.

    Though it put up a brave front in public, it has gone about effecting an image makeover, many insiders believe.

    At the Centre, it dropped Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and brought Mansukh Mandaviya, seen more hands-on and goal-oriented, and also edged out many veterans, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar.

  • Who will replace Vijay Rupani? Speculation over Nitin Patel, Mansukh Mandaviya as next Gujarat CM

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Names of Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel, state agriculture minister R C Faldu and Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya are doing rounds amid speculation over who will succeed Vijay Rupani as Gujarat chief minister.

    Rupani resigned as CM on Saturday, over a year ahead of Assembly elections in the state, without assigning any specific reason.

    “Names of Patel, Faldu, Rupala and Mandaviya are being discussed. But it is impossible to say who will be the chief minister as the decision will be taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi” a party leader said.

    When Anandiben Patel resigned as chief minister in August 2016, there was talk that Patel would succeed her, but in a last-minute decision, Rupani was chosen for the top post.

    The demand to make Nitin Patel chief minister began to trend on social media after Rupani’s resignation.

    ALSO READ | Vijay Rupani’s soft-spoken image may have been his undoing as Gujarat CM, say observers

    Union health minister Mandaviya, who like Patel belongs to the influential Patidar community, is also considered a front-runner.

    Leaders of the community had demanded recently that the next chief minister should be a Patidar.

    State BJP president C R Paatil, who originally hails from Maharashtra, is unlikely to be considered for the CM’s post, sources said.

    The BJP had replaced Anandiben Patel a year before Assembly polls were due.

    It has now done the same with Rupani and his successor may lead the party in the December 2022 state elections, the sources said.

  • Vijay Rupani’s soft-spoken image may have been his undoing as Gujarat CM, say observers

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Vijay Rupani may have been a soft-spoken chief minister, but political observers feel that it may have also contributed to his image of being a ‘weak’ CM, who allowed bureaucrats to overrule the political leadership in taking key decisions.

    Some observers also point to the way he handled the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and economic and social distress that followed it, even suggesting that it may have contributed to his downfall.

    During his second stint as the CM, Rupani (65), who resigned from the post on Saturday over a year before the next Assembly polls are due, was instrumental in passing tough anti-conversion law against interfaith marriages, and another one against those involved in cow slaughter.

    Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the BJP’s face in the high-octane 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign in his home state, it was Rupani, belonging to the relatively small Jain community, who as CM steered the party machinery in Gujarat.

    Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) Rupani joined an RSS shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh’s students wing–the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

    Before he became the CM for the first time in 2016, Rupani worked mostly in the party organisation in Gujarat, and fought his first Assembly election in 2014, winning a bypoll from Rajkot West.

    Rupani, a low-profile RSS man, was back in the chief minister’s chair in 2017 after having survived the incumbency factor and a violent quota stir by the Patidars.

    A bachelor of law, Rupani was a Rajya Sabha member between 2006 and 2012.

    When he headed Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation in 2006, the hugely successful advertisement campaign ‘Khushboo Gujarat Ki’, featuring megastar Amitabh Bachchan, was launched to promote the state as a tourism hotspot.

    On February 19, 2016, he was appointed the chief of the Gujarat BJP.

    When the state’s first and only woman chief minister Anandiben Patel resigned in August 2016 following allegations of inept handling of the Patidar and Dalit agitations, Rupani was catapulted to the hot seat.

    Rupani honed his political skills in the crucible of the Gujarat Navnirman agitation, a socio-political movement in 1974 by students and the middle-class against economic crisis and corruption in public life.

    Rupani, who was then with the ABVP, was jailed for nearly a year during Emergency.

    As the mayor of Rajkot in 1996-97, he endeared himself to the people of the city with his initiatives for the improvement of the civic infrastructure.

    Rupani’s mettle as a politician was tested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Modi bid for a second shot at power.

  • Vijay Rupani resigns as Chief Minister of Gujarat ahead of 2022 assembly polls

    By Online Desk

    Vijay Rupani resigned as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on Saturday evening, confirmed PTI.

    Rupani, who made the announcement while talking to reporters, did not reveal what prompted him to step down.

    His resignation comes a year before the state heads to the polls at the end of 2022. 

    Rupani had been serving as the Chief Minister of Gujarat since 7 August 2016 and is currently a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly representing Rajkot West.

    (This is a developing story. More updates awaited)

  • Music DJ held for ‘hurting’ Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani’s reputation through spoof video

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Police have detained a 30- year-old disc jockey (DJ) in Vadodara city of Gujarat on the charge of harming state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s reputation by making and uploading a video by using a part of the latter’s past speech, officials said on Friday.

    The accused was identified as Pradeep Kahar, a resident of Kahar Mohalla in Dandiya Bazaar locality of Vadodara, they said.

    He was detained on Thursday by Vadodara city crime branch under IPC section 469, which deals with forgery for purpose of harming reputation, a release issued by the police said.

    Right now, he is kept under detention and will be formally arrested once his coronavirus report comes negative, it said.

    Kahar is a local DJ and uses the name ‘DJ Adee’ on various social media platforms, including on Facebook.

    “He is accused of making and circulating a fake electronic document using some portion of the CM’s original speech with an intention to harm the reputation and position of the CM,” the release said, quoting the FIR.

    Since it is an act of defamation, the Vadodara city crime branch, upon learning about Kahar’s act from social media, detained him, it added.

    “Kahar is a DJ and created a video using CM’s speech on potatoes grown in Banaskantha. He also circulated the video on various social media platforms,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, said.

    In his speech, the chief minister had tried to say that potatoes grown by farmers of Banaskantha will get more price if sold to fast food giant McDonald’s for making French fries sold at their outlets.

    While Kahar did not alter the original words, he cut some portions of the speech and put it together to make a spoof video of the CM, police said.

  • Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani weighed against 85 kilograms of silver at event

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was on Monday weighed against 85 kilograms of silver at a function organised in Gandhinagar.

    Rupani donated the silver for the welfare of livestock at cow shelters, a state government release said, adding that the ‘rajat tula’ event was organised by Samast Mahajan Trust.

    Rupani said his government was committed to the welfare of livestock, and had enacted a stringent law against cow slaughter with jail terms of up to 12 years.

    He said his government had launched ‘Karuna Abhiyan’ to treat birds injured during the kite festival, apart from operating 350 mobile veterinary vans, and offering financial assistance to cow shelters.

    Steps had been taken to make such cow shelters, or panjrapole, self-sufficient by helping those running it grow fodder, the CM added.

    Rupani also inaugurated in online mode ‘gauchar’ development works in Banaskantha and Mehsana, the release said.

  • Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani tests positive for coronavirus

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has tested positive for coronavirus, said a hospital where the CM is admitted after he fainted in a rally.

    On Sunday, Rupani, 64, fainted on stage while addressing a rally in Vadodara for the upcoming civic polls in the state, following which he was flown to Ahmedabad and admitted to the U N Mehta Hospital here.

    Rupani’s sample was collected on Sunday night and sent for RT-PCR test which has come out positive for coronavirus, said a health bulletin issued by the hospital on Monday.

    He has mild symptoms, it added.