Ahmedabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday named Vijay Rupani, a senior Gujarat minister, as the 16th chief minister of the state.

Acknowledging the influence of the Patel community, the BJP named Nitin Patel as deputy chief minister. Both Rupani and Nitin Patel were front runners to replace Anandiben Patel, who resigned as chief minister this week. The decision was taken at a meeting of legislative party members attended by BJP president Amit Shah and Anandiben Patel.

While Rupani had earlier this week ruled out himself from the chief ministerial race saying that he would like to focus on strengthening the organization, Patel had given a few interviews to local channels about how he plans to take the state forward.

On a question about why the change in strategy, union minister Nitin Gadkari at a press conference said that the party followed a democratic process and Rupani’s name had been unanimously decided.

“While Rupaniji may have given his opinion, the final decision on the choice of new CM was arrived at by way of a democratic process. As many as 15 top leaders, all state MLAs and the Prime Minister were involved in the decision making process. It was a unanimous decision," said Gadkari at the press conference.

Thanking the outgoing chief minister Anandiben Patel for her contribution in taking forward the Gujarat growth story, Gadkari said that she had proposed the name of Nitin Patel as deputy CM and it was supported by other MLAs, he added.

This is for the first time the BJP in Gujarat has chosen a deputy chief minister.

While Nitin Patel had earlier emerged as a consensus candidate, it was at a meeting of office bearers and central observers that Rupani’s name was proposed as CM, said a person close to the development. He did not wish to be identified.

Gadkari also said that the party had taken the decision keeping in mind the road-map for development model and politics for progress and development laid out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of the state.

The choice of the new chief minister is crucial because assembly elections in Gujarat are due in December 2017.

Anandiben Patel resigned in the backdrop of allegations of mismanaging the widespread unrest in Gujarat following the Patidar agitation for quotas in government jobs and university seats, and more recently, protests that flared after the assault on a group of Dalits by cow vigilantes.

The Patidar agitation, which began last August, has threatened to dent the BJP’s strongest support base, the Patel community, which makes up nearly 14% of the state’s population.

Two days ago, the BJP leadership accepted Anandiben Patel’s request to be relieved from the chief minister’s post and authorized Shah to hold consultations with state legislators before naming the new chief minister.

During the parliamentary board meeting on Wednesday, the BJP had also appointed Gadkari and general secretary Saroj Pandey as observers for the legislative party meeting on Friday.

Although a section of Gujarat legislators was keen that Amit Shah become the new chief minister, BJP leaders decided that Shah will stay in his role of party president because of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Anandiben Patel offered to resign on Monday, citing her age. She is 74. She met governor OP Kohli and submitted her resignation on Wednesday. An informal policy in the BJP bars people above the age of 75 from holding any administrative post.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Anandiben Patel said though she would reach the age of 75 only in November, she had decided to step down early, keeping in mind next year’s assembly polls and the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ summit.

The resignation would give her successor enough time to settle down, she said. She also thanked Prime Minister Modi for choosing her as his successor in Gujarat, adding that she had tried her best to offer “resulted-oriented governance".

(Gyan Varma contributed to the story)

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