Bhupendra Patel was announced as the next Gujarat chief minister a day after Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his cabinet resigned. The decision was taken at the BJP legislature party meeting in Gandhinagar on Sunday. Bhupendra Patel’s name was proposed by CM Vijay Rupani, whose resignation from the post on Saturday surprised many. As per the sources, most of the 112 MLAs of the party in the 182-member Assembly were present at the meeting.

Patel won the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections from Ghatlodiya constituency, defeating Congress candidate Shashikant Patel by over one lakh votes, the highest winning margin in the 2017 Gujarat polls. He holds a diploma in civil engineering and is considered close to former CM Anandiben Patel, who won from the seat in 2012 polls. Anandiben Patel had represented the Ghatlodiya constituency before she was appointed Governor.

Ahead of today's legislature party meeting, the names of two Union Ministers from Gujarat -Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala - the controversial Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Patel, and state agriculture minister RC Faldu were doing the rounds.

First-time MLA Patel belongs to the Patidar community. He has also held the positions of president of Memnagar municipality in Ahmedabad, standing committee chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority.

BJP has also appointed Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Narendra Singh Tomar as observers as the party looks to avert a crisis in Gujarat after Vijay Rupani stepped down on Saturday.

Rupani had turned 65 last month and according to sources are to be believed, with his leadership in Gujarat, the party was not so confident about the upcoming elections. Rupani in his resignation speech spoke of “Nayi Urja and Naya Utsaah” as the reason for choosing a new Chief Minister.

Image source: The Times of India