Vijay Rupani resigned as Gujarat
Chief Minister Saturday becoming the fourth BJP chief minister to be axed this
year after BS Yediyurappa in Karnataka, and Tirath Singh Rawat and Trivendra
Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand. After submitting his resignation in Raj Bhavan,
Rupani said that he has been allowed to serve the state for five years and that
there is a tradition within the BJP that responsibilities of party workers
change time to time.

“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 told reporters. While
speculations about a potential change of guard were doing the rounds for a
while in Gujarat, the exact reasons for Vijay Rupani’s resignation remain
unclear.

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The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Gujarat and the
resultant economic as well as social distress may have had a role to play in
Vijay Rupani’s exit, PTI reported citing sources. Political observers in
Gujarat say that Rupani’s image as a soft-spoken person “weak” chief minister
allowed bureaucrats to overrule the political leadership of Gujarat, The Times
Of India reported.

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Vijay Rupani completed five years as chief minister of
Gujarat this August. Rupani’s resignation within one year of Gujarat going to
polls signifies a change in BJP’s style of functioning ahead of the assembly
elections next year.

Further, the fact that only last month BJP state president
CR Paatil said that the party will contest next year’s assembly polls under the
leadership of Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel and now Rupani is no longer leading
Gujarat shows that the party is re-thinking its strategy before going into the
polls.

While who will succeed Vijay Rupani still
remains to be revealed, the next few days promise an action-filled
reorientation of BJP’s Gujarat assembly election plans.