Who is Vijay Rupani?

Vijay Ramniklal Rupani is a former Chief Minister of Gujarat who resigned on September 12, 2021. The Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party was born on August 2, 1956 in Yangon, Myanmar. A member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly representing Rajkot West, Vijay Rupani began his career as a student activist and member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. He graduated from Dharmendrasinhji Arts College and LLB from Saurashtra University and later went on to join Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jan Sangh in 1971. 

The former Gujarat Chief Minister was imprisoned for 11 months during the Emergency period in 1976. He was sent to the jails in Bhuj and Bhavnagar. Also an RSS Pracharak from 1978 to 1981, he was later elected as a corporator of Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) in 1987 and went on to become the chairman of drainage committee. He became the chairman of the standing committee of RMC from 1988 to 1996. 

He was elected as BJP’s Gujarat unit general secretary in 1998 and served as the chairman of the manifesto committee during chief ministership of Keshubhai Patel. Interestingly, he later went on to be appointed as a chairman of Gujarat Tourism in 2006 as well. A  member of Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012, he served as BJP’s Gujarat unit general secretary four times during Narendra Modi’s tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. 

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Vijay Rupani resigned as Chief Minister of Gujarat on Saturday evening. 

“… has been a five-year journey for development of Gujarat… under guidance of PM Modi. Now, to further develop the state, with new energy and power, I have decided to resign as Chief Minister,” Mr Rupani told ANI. 

“It is well known that BJP, as a party, keeps changing as per requirements… it is a speciality of our party that every worker delivers his/her assigned job to the fullest, and I too will continue to work for the party with the same energy,” he added.