Vijay Rupani resigned as Chief Minister of Gujarat on Saturday evening. The Gujarat chief minister’s resignation has come as a surprise and it is still unclear as to what precipitated Vijay Rupani’s resignation. Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, is due for assembly elections next year. 

Vijay Rupani submitted his resignation to Gujarat governor
Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan. On his way out, Rupani told the media that he is
thankful to the BJP leadership for giving him the opportunity to serve as the
chief minister. “During my tenure, I got the opportunity to work for the
development of the state under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership,
Rupani said but did not spill the beans on the reason for his resignation.

Vijay Rupani said that he has served as Gujarat Chief
Minister for five years which is a long time and a change of guard is a natural
phenomenon within the BJP. Rupani added he will continue to work under the
leadership of BJP national president JP Nadda.

“The people have repeatedly reposed their faith in the BJP
during the past few years,” Rupani said. It is unclear whether Deputy Chief
Minister Nitin Patel will succeed Rupani as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Speculations regarding Vijay Rupani’s leadership were doing
the rounds for a while. However, in August, Gujarat’s BJP state president CR
Paatil had said that the party will contest the next year’s assembly elections
under the leadership of Vijay Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel.

“Both Nitinbhai and Vijaybhai are working with full force
for the development of Gujarat, and the upcoming election will also be
contested under their leadership,” the BJP state president had said in response
to a question about the speculation over the change in leadership in the
government, PTI reported. 

Vijay Rupani is the fourth Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister to step down in recent months. Before Rupani, Karnataka’s BS Yediyurappa resigned as Chief Minister in July. In Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as Chief Minister just four months after replacing Trivendra Singh Rawat. Pushkar Singh Dhami took over as Uttarakhand Chief Minister.