Rupani, Patel to remain CM, deputy

Manas Dasgupta

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Gandhinagar, December 22

Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel have been re-elected as the Gujarat Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively.

A meeting of the BJP Legislature Party held here today elected Rupani as the leader and Patel as his deputy in the presence of the party’s central observers — Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP national secretary Saroj Pandey. Jaitley later said both decisions were taken unanimously.

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Senior minister in the outgoing Rupani Cabinet Bhupendrasinh Chudasma proposed Rupani’s name. The proposal was accepted by all.

Rupani said he and Patel would meet Governor OP Kohli soon and decide the date and venue of the swearing-in ceremony of his new ministry. He said the aim of his government would continue to be “sabka saath, sabka vikas”.

Rupani and Patel were first elected the CM and the Deputy CM in August last year as a stop-gap arrangement after the successor of PM Narendra Modi, state’s first woman Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, decided to resign on attaining 75 years of age.

Rupani and Patel’s re-election was considered a certainty as the party had contested the poll under their leadership. Moreover, Rupani is considered to be a close confidant of party chief Amit Shah and also enjoys an unblemished record in his relatively short political career.

Rupani admitted that the BJP faced a tough challenge from the Congress in the Assembly elections, but said it was no small achievement for the party that despite 22 years of anti-incumbency, people of the state re-elected it for another five years. 

He said the reasons for the party securing lesser number of seats despite getting a higher vote share would be looked into and the loopholes plugged to prepare for the 2019 parliamentary polls.

Meanwhile, Ratansinh Rathod, an Independent MLA from Lunawada, has declared his support to the BJP. Rathod, a Congress leader, was refused the party ticket and contested as an Independent.

The BJP has 99 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly.