Rupani resigns as Gujarat CM ahead of polls next year

Darshan Desai and

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

GANDHINAGAR/NEW DELHI: Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani resigned from the post on Saturday, an announcement that came a little over a year before the assembly elections in the state that is ruled by the

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While it was not immediately clear what led to the move, with Saturday’s sudden change of the guard, Gujarat joined a list of states where the central BJP brass opted to change the leadership ahead of assembly elections. After Karnataka, where chief minister BS Yeddiyurappa was replaced by Basavaraj Bommai

ahead of the 2023 elections, and Uttarakhand, where the incumbent Trivendra Singh Rawat was first replaced by Tirath Singh and later by Pushkar Dhami, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani on Saturday announced his resignation. Both Gujarat and Uttarakhand will pick new assemblies in 2022.

BJP’s general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and Gujarat state unit incharge Bhupender Yadav met party functionaries soon after Rupani announced his resignation. Rupani and state cabinet colleagues met the governor and submitted their resignations.

Rupani, who tendered his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat in the afternoon, told reporters: “I am a loyal soldier of the BJP and have resigned of my own accord; nobody asked me to do so. I will work for the party organisation or whatever role the party leadership assigns me.” Amid speculation of infighting, he denied he had any differences with state BJP president CR Paatil.