Guwahati News Desk: MLA from Ghatlodiya constituency, Bhupendra Patel, to be the new Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Patel will be replacing Gujarat’s Chief Minister Vijay Rupani who had resigned from the top post on Saturday.
The decision was taken at the BJP legislature party meeting held in Gandhinagar on Sunday.
In addition, the announcement came just a day after the exit of Rupani and his cabinet.
According to sources, Patel was unanimously elected as BJP legislature party leader, after his name was proposed by Rupani himself.
Regarding Rupani’s resignation, it came 15 months before the election to the 182-member Assembly that is due in December 2022. The now 65-year old, Rupani, who is the fourth chief minister to demit office in BJP-ruled states during the coronavirus pandemic, was sworn in as chief minister in December 2017.
Regarding Patel, he is called as ‘Dada’ by many. Patel had contested his maiden assembly election from Ghatlodia constituency in Ahmedabad in 2017 and won it by a margin of over 1.17 lakh votes, which was a record during that election. Patel is the former chairman of the standing committee of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and he has also served as the chairman of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA)
Moreover, Patel has never held a Ministerial post, just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he became Gujarat CM, twenty years ago.