Bhupendra Patel replaces Vijay Rupani as new Chief Minister of Gujarat

Bhupendra Patel will be the chief minister of Gujarat, the party decided on Saturday in its meeting to pick up the successor for Vijay Rupani, a day after Rupani resigned. Bhupendra Patel is an MLA from the Ghatlodiya assembly constituency in Gujarat and had won by a margin of over 1,17,000 votes against Shashikant Patel from the Congress. He also chaired the standing committee of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Bhupendra Patel will be the chief minister of Gujarat

With the surprise resignation of Vijay Rupani as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, the BJP held a legislature meeting today to choose his successor. The party has sent Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar to Gujarat as the party's central observer to the meeting.

After Rupani resigned, several names were doing the rounds but choosing Bhupendra Patel was a surprise decision of the BJP as he was not among the frontrunners. The meeting to decide a successor of Vijay Rupani began at 3pm in the presence of central observers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Joshi a day after Vijay Rupani tendered his resignation to the governor.

Nitin Patel's name was doing the rounds as a probable successor to which he reacted and said the new CM will have to be popular, strong, experienced and the one who is known and acceptable to all. "I am not here to express my personal opinion on the possible name. The exercise to elect the next chief minister is not just a work to fill in a vacancy. Gujarat should get a successful leadership so that the state can develop, keeping all together," PTI quoted Nitin Patel as saying.

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