Current affairs

In Bhupendra Rajnikant Patel, Gujarat sees the footsteps of PM Narendra Modi!

By alagu, 13 September, 2021
BJP, Gujarat, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah

Bhupendra Rajnikant Patel has become the latest Indian figure to have a rapid political elevation after he was elected as the Gujarat Chief Minister by the BJP to replace Vijay Rupani, who had resigned from the post last Saturday. Patel, a versatile face, has on Monday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in the ceremony headed by Governor Acharya Devvrat. The ceremony was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and other senior BJP leaders. 

The sudden change of guard in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had come a year ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls. In the elevation of Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat has witnessed the footsteps of Narendra Modi when the latter had become the Chief Minister. Patel was just like Narendra Modi, who had never held the post of a minister before becoming the Chief Minister of Gujarat two decades ago. Modi had become the Chief Minister on October 7, 2001, and became an MLA on February 24, 2002, by winning the Rajkot seat by-election. 

Patel too was elected to the assembly in 2017 and within the tenure of the assembly, he has been elected as the Chief Minister. With the elevation, Patel has become the party's face for the upcoming assembly polls and he has become the 17th Chief Minister of Gujarat. As he has been sworn in as the Chief Minister by drawing national attention, wishes have been pouring for him from across the country. Prime Minister Modi took to social media and wrote, "Congratulations to Bhupendra Bhai on taking oath as CM of Gujarat. I have known him for years and have seen his exemplary work, be it in the BJP Organisation or in civic administration and community service. He will certainly enrich Gujarat’s growth trajectory." 

Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar congratulated Patel and told ANI, "I sincerely hope that his leadership will be successful and in the next elections, the BJP government will be formed with more votes than before. Bhupendra Patel is BJP's grassroots worker." Only Bhupendra Patel had taken the oath of office on Monday and the reports say that the council of ministers will take oath in the next few days. After swearing-in, Patel had reached the Office of the Chief Minister and officially took charge of the role and he in fact held the first meeting in which he took stock of the flood situation in Jamnagar. 

Born in Ahmedabad, 59-year-old Bhupendhra Patel is a civil engineering diploma holder and began his career as an engineer. He then went on to serve as the Ahmedabad municipal councillor and the chairperson of the Standing Committee of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority. He is also a trustee at the Patidar organization's Sardardham and Vishwa Umiya Foundation. In the 2017 assembly polls, he contested from the Ghatlodia constituency and went on to win the election by a record margin of 1,17,000 votes, the largest for any constituency in Gujarat for the BJP in the 2017 polls.

Patel had maintained a low profile and his graph has now surged high with being elected as the Chief Minister. On Saturday, Chief Minister of BJP ruling Gujarat, Vijay Rupani has tendered his resignation, become the fourth BJP Chief Minister in this year to leave his job prematurely after two Chief Ministers - Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand and BS Yediyurappa in Karnataka. Rupani's exit was cooked as a sudden overhaul to prepare Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, to the assembly polls and to cultivate a landslide victory. 

The reports in the know have said that the BJP's Central leadership was not happy with Rupani as his governance was not in the fashion of gaining confidence in the polls. His administration had a stormic hit over handling the Covid-19 pandemic and leaving room for the emergence of the rival- Aam Aadmi Party, which is keenly establishing the base in the state and went on to win some of the local body seats. Following Rupani's resignation, there were nationwide speculations on Rupani's successor and throwing weight on them, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel were on the race as both of them had held meetings with the BJP observers. It was the endgame on Sunday and BJP ended it by announcing a surprise pick.

On Sunday, the BJP had held the legislative party meet and after that, the Central ruling party has taken everyone into surprise by announcing the first-time MLA Bhupendra Patel as the next Chief Minister of Gujarat. Bhupendra Patel was neither a familiar face nor ruled the list of probables. Though he maintains a low profile, the BJP has decided to make him replace Vijay Rupani. According to reports, Bhupendra Patel was unanimously elected BJP Legislature party leader and his name was proposed by ousted Rupani. 

Behind the surprise pick was the party's agenda of building leadership through the new entrants. According to a news agency, a BJP leader in the know has said that the last few Chief Ministers picked by the BJP had displayed that the party doesn't go by established reputations but to develop a new pack of leadership in the states. It was vividly seen in picking lesser-known Pushkar Singh Dhami as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand recently. By upholding this agenda, BJP aims to win the hearts of growing leaders and to ensure that such elevations of new faces would pour in more support to the party from their communities.

In Gujarat, the Patidar community enjoys a massive voter base and in the albeit of having less prominence in the state's political ecosystem, Bhupendra Patel has built a strong base in the Patidar community. So, for BJP, his pick would have a significant return in the polls. His pick has also revealed how former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel still has an admirable base in Gujarat even after leaving the state as the Governor - then for Madhya Pradesh and now for Uttar Pradesh. Bhupendra Patel has been observing close ties with Anandiben Patel and this has been touted as one of the factors behind Bhupendra Patel's elevation. Adding to that, the incoming Chief Minister has contested from Ghatlodia - the seat vacated by Anandiben Patel in 2017.

 

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