Ahmedabad/ New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday resigned from the post, over a year before the state goes to polls.
The Gujarat BJP legislature party is likely to meet on Sunday to choose the new Chief Minister, state BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas was quoted as saying by a national news agency. Union minister Amit Shah may join the legislature party meeting along with Central observers, he added.
It is not clear what prompted the development in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state where elections to the 182-member Assembly are due in December next year.
Rupani (65) was sworn in as Chief Minister, his second stint as CM, in December 2017.
"I have resigned as Chief Minister of Gujarat," Rupani told reporters after meeting Governor Acharya Devvrat and submitting his resignation letter.
"I was allowed to serve the state for five years. I have contributed to the development of the state. I will further do whatever is asked by my party," Rupani said.
"In BJP, there has been a tradition that responsibilities of party workers change from time to time. I will be ready to take whatever responsibility that the party will give me in the future," Rupani said.
"I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving a common worker like me this opportunity to serve the people of the state as Chief Minister," Rupani added.
He, along with state BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya, and state Cabinet colleagues Deputy CM Nitin Patel, Bhupndrasinh Chudasama and Pradeepsinh Jadeja met the Governor and submitted their resignations.
Asked about reasons for his resignation, Rupani said: "In BJP, it is like a relay race for party workers. One gives the baton to the other." On who will be the next chief minister, Rupani said that the party will decide about it. He denied that he had any differences with state BJP president C R Paatil.
According to reports, authoritative sources indicate that the prime reason for the removal of Rupani was the Prime Minister's anger at his mishandling of the second vicious wave of the pandemic. Rupani, a protege of Amit Shah, was catapulted to the top job in 2016 while his serial Covid missteps in the PM's home state reportedly had Modi seriously upset.
The Gujarat High Court had in May, 2020 castigated the Rupani administration for the "alarming number of deaths in Ahmedabad hospitals".
The background to the Rupani exit is also the fact that he seemed to be unable to come to grips with handling the Gujarat administration even after five years in office. Senior officials and MLAs compared him unfavourably to the PM, who, as the state's three-time Chief Minister, had an iron grip on the administration; even his successor, Anandiben Patel, who is currently the Governor of Uttar Pradesh was seen as more in control.
Names of Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel, state agriculture minister R C Faldu and Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya are doing the rounds amid speculation over who will succeed Vijay Rupani as Gujarat Chief Minister.
But ahead of a possible Covid third wave, a change in the Health portfolio could be seen as detrimental. That, and the fact that Mandaviya is a Rajya Sabha MP and will have to be elected to the Assembly may keep him tethered to Delhi.
Meanwhile, Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday claimed that Rupani paid the price for the BJP's failures.
The saffron party cannot cover up the failure of its "remote-controlled" government by simply changing the Chief Minister, the Congress said.
"The party has made Vijay Rupani resign to hide the misrule and criminal negligence of the state government which caused three lakh deaths during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic," state Congress chief Amit Chavda said.
Farmers are committing suicide in the state and the youth are unable to find jobs despite expensive education, he alleged.
Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia said the BJP had no option other than changing the leadership in view of the deteriorating law and order situation.
The "remote control" of the government remains in Delhi and in the hands of state BJP chief C R Paatil, he said, adding that both the "remote control operators" have been a failure.
Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani took a dim view of the Chief Minister's tenure, blaming him for the alleged Covid mess.
"People of Gujarat would have appreciated had Mr. Rupani resigned for his monumental mismanagement of Covid crisis," Mr Mevani posted on Twitter.