From development to relay race: What Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani said after quitting
Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani resigned just ahead of the elections to the 182-member assembly are due in December next year.
Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said on Saturday that the development journey of the state should continue under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guidance and the new leadership as he resigned from the top post. Vijay Rupani met Governor Acharya Devvrat and submitted his resignation from the post of Gujarat chief minister. Along with Rupani, state BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya, and state cabinet colleagues deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, Bhupndrasinh Chudasama and Pradeepsinh Jadeja also met the governor and submitted their resignations.
Vijay Rupani resigned as the chief minister of Gujarat just ahead of the elections to the 182-member assembly are due in December next year. The 65-year-old Rupani was sworn in as the chief minister for the second time in December 2017. "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. “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,” he also said.
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Vijay Rupani said that the BJP is an ideology-driven party and the roles of workers keep changing there. “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,” he added.
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.”
Rupani, who is from the Jain community which has around 2% population in the state, said the Bharatiya Janata Party will decide about who will be the next Gujarat chief minister as he denied that he had any differences with state BJP president CR Patil. There is speculation that his successor may be from the Patidar community.
Vijay Rupani first became the Gujarat chief minister on August 7, 2016, after the resignation of incumbent Anandiben Patel and continued in the office after the BJP's victory in the 2017 assembly elections. The BJP won 99 of the state's 182 assembly seats and Congress got 77 seats in the 2017 state election.
(With agency inputs)
