Vijay Rupani Gujarat’s new CM, Nitin Patel his deputy, Gujarat CM 2016, Gujarat new chief minister, All you need to know about Vijay Rupani Nitin patel
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- Category: Gujarat Political News
- Last Updated: Saturday, 06 August 2016 11:03
Vijay Rupani Gujarat’s new CM, Nitin Patel his deputy,Gujarat CM 2016, Gujarat new chief minister, All you need to know about Vijay Rupani Nitin patel
BJP on Friday selected Vijay Rupani as Gujarat's new chief minister+ , a move that bears the risk-taking style of party president Amit Shah as well as his ever-growing heft.
It also reflects Shah's belief that PM Modi's popularity on his home ground will help the party in the 2017 assembly polls and suggests that BJP may be looking for ways to overcome its traditional dependence on the influential Patel community.
All you need to know about Vijay Rupani Nitin patel
It's also a personal blow to Nitin Patel+ , the most senior minister in the state. Patel had taken his elevation for granted and started "acting" as the CM-designate, spelling out as his priorities as Anandiben Patel's successor. However, he ended up being Rupani's deputy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named Vijay Rupani as Gujarat’s new chief minister and Nitin Patel his deputy on Friday, entrusting two of its most powerful state leaders the responsibility of reviving the party’s popularity among voters.
Rupani, who takes charge on Sunday, has his job cut out. He has to placate angry Patel and Dalit communities, battle two decades of anti-incumbency and repair ties between the government and the party. And all this before the state elections that are due by December, 2017.
In choosing Rupani over Patel, who was seen as a front-runner for the top job till Thursday, the BJP hopes that his non-dominant Jain background would help neutralise caste equations in a state where the Patel and Dalit communities are crucial vote banks.
Rupani, 61, hails from Rajkot, the heartland of Saurashtra which has a significant population of both Patels and Dalits.
The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for two decades but the past two years have seen the party’s fortunes slide in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
Anandiben’s two-year tenure was marked by deadly protests by the Patidars seeking quotas in colleges and jobs, and more recently, over the public beating of four Dalit men by self-styled cow protectors.
The BJP’s vote share in panchayat polls dropped from 50.26% in 2010 to 43.97% last year. Its hold over semi-urban and urban civic bodies also weakened during the period, helping to revive a moribund Congress party in the state.
On Friday, Anandiben proposed Rupani’s name in the meet attended by 121 state BJP lawmakers.
Sources said Shah believed that replacing a Patel chief minister with a non-Patel would not go down well with the Patidar community. This led to the party settling for a new arrangement of a deputy chief minister.
In selecting Rupani, a first-time MLA, the BJP has kept up its tradition of bringing in a non-Patel leader after the untimely exit of a Patel leader. Twice, when Keshubhai Patel had to go unceremoniously without completing his terms in 1995 and 1998, the BJP’s choice was from non-dominant castes -- Suresh Mehta, a Jain in 1996 and Narendra Modi, an OBC in 2001 -- to neutralise caste considerations.
This is also the first time the BJP has selected a Kadva Patel leader in Nitin Patel.