In what has become a big political drama, Chief Minister of BJP ruling Gujarat Vijay Rupani has on Saturday tendered his resignation from the post to Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat. Through his resignation, Rupani has become the third BJP Chief Minister to step down in two months after Uttarakhand's Tirath Singh Rawat and Karnataka's BS Yediyurappa.

The unanticipated development in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his trusted lieutenant Amit Shah, has drawn huge national attention. According to reports, Rupani's resignation has come a year ahead of the Gujarat assembly polls. As the sequel of his resignation, his cabinet has been dissolved and by throwing a political heat, BJP is now vested with three options in Gujarat - elect Rupani's successor and form a new government, conduct assembly polls much ahead of the schedule, and impose President's rule under the Governor. 

65-year-old Rupani was sworn in as Gujarat Chief Minister in December 2017 and he has ended this tenure in office before the expiration of the current assembly. Before being sworn in as the Chief Minister with people's support, Rupani had served as the Chief Minister by succeeding Anandiben Patel. After tendering his resignation to the Governor, Rupani has expressed his gratitude to the BJP for conferring the CM post to him.

Speaking to the reporters in Gandhinagar, Rupani said, "I want to thank BJP for giving me this opportunity to serve as Gujarat's CM. During my tenure, I got the opportunity to add to the development of the state under PM Modi's leadership". He said that it has been a five-year journey for the development of Gujarat under the guidance of Prime Minister Modi. Rupani stated that he has decided to resign as Chief Minister to further develop the state with new energy and power.

He added, "It is well known that BJP, as a party, keeps changing as per requirements. It is a speciality of our party that every worker delivers the assigned job to the fullest, and I too will continue to work for the party with the same energy." The reports in the know say that though the exact reason behind Rupani's resignation remains unclear, it is due to the decision of the BJP High Command to change things and address the matter if the state leadership comes under crisis.

The BJP leadership has been taking efforts to set things right and to clean shave the dissents before they emerge as big trouble in the states that are going for the assembly polls. An example of what happened in Gujarat was what happened in Uttarakhand earlier this July. Like Gujarat, Uttarakhand will also go for polls next year and this July, Tirath Singh Rawat had resigned as the Chief Minister and he was replaced by Pushkar Singh Dhami.

With the three options in Gujarat, it has been reported that the BJP will use the option of appointing a new Chief Minister to face the elections. While there had been no official contender for Rupani, a news agency has quoted the sources saying that Mansukh Mandaviya, who recently took office as the Union Health Minister, and Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel are leading in the race to succeed Vijay Rupani. The sources have highlighted that Mandaviya, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, has come to Rupani's residence which fueled the speculations about Rupani's replacement. 

Gandhinagar: Vijay Rupani submitted his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat, from the post of Gujarat's Chief Minister pic.twitter.com/VqavB2jj9h

— ANI (@ANI) September 11, 2021