BJP President Amit Shah today said the party’s Parliamentary Board will take a decision on Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel’s resignation and her successor.
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The BJP is waiting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a call on successor of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben who offered to resign on Monday.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and party General Secretary Saroj Pandey will be present at the meeting as central observers.
Commenting on the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has said she has been made the “scapegoat” for the prolonged BJP misrule in the state. The party needs his leadership at the national level.
While the Rohith Vemula controversy spelled massive damage to Irani’s prospects in the MHRD, Patel’s resignation offer comes in the wake of continued agitation by the community in Gujarat since the Una incident, in which four Dalit youths were beaten up.
‘Facing the heat of the Patidar agitation and Dalit outrage, the BJP also wants a face that can pacify all communities, ‘ the daily quoted a senior BJP leader as saying. She headed the government as chief minister in satisfactory manner. I too am turning 75 this November. “It put on record her very good work as the chief minister and as a minister earlier”, Naidu said.
Mr. Naidu, however, sought to brush aside media speculation which suggested that Mr. Shah was among those being considered for the Chief Minister’s position.
The BJP, which has been on a winning spree for over last two decades in Modi’s home state, seems to have sensed political setback if it continues with Anandiben who took charge in 2014 from her high-profile predecessor.
According to sources, BJP workers are inclined to see party president Amit Shah taking the reigns from Patel to revive BJP’s falling stock.
She joined BJP as the Gujarat Pradesh Mahila Morcha president in 1987.
To queries on whether Shah too was a contender for the CM’s post, Naidu said, “Such a question does not arise”.
The parliamentary board accepted the resignation of Anandiben Patel as the Chief Minister and later in the evening she tendered her resignation to Governor O.P. Kohli.
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Many believe him to be the right person for the job when the party is in a challenging situation in the state, which is going to the polls next year.
