Political experts on Saturday said outgoing Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s “soft-spoken image” and allowing bureaucrats to erode political leadership in taking important decisions may have contributed to his image of being a “weak” CM.
Some observers told PTI that the way he handled the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent economic and social repercussions were likely reasons for his downfall.
The 65-year-old, who resigned during his second term as chief minister, a year before the assembly elections, was instrumental in passing key laws including a strict anti-conversion law against inter-religious marriage and an anti-cow slaughter law .
Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the high-octane face of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign in his home state, it was Rupani, from the relatively small Jain community, who ran the party machinery in Gujarat as CM.
Low-profile RSS man to CM
Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar), Rupani joined the RSS shakha as a schoolboy before graduating to the BJP through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Sangh.
Before becoming chief minister for the first time in 2016, Rupani worked mostly in the party organization in Gujarat, and contested his first assembly election in 2014, winning a by-election from Rajkot West.
Rupani honed his political skills in the crucible of the Gujarat Navnirman Andolan, a socio-political movement in 1974 by students and the middle class against economic distress and corruption in public life. The Chief Minister, who was with the ABVP at that time, was in jail for almost a year during the Emergency. As mayor of Rajkot in 1996–97, he endeared himself to the people of the city with his initiatives to improve civic infrastructure.
In 2006, he headed the Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation. The ad campaign ‘Khushboo Gujarat Ki’ was a huge hit as it featured megastar Amitabh Bachchan and successfully promoted the state as a tourism hotspot.
It was after Anandiben Patel, the first and only Gujarat woman chief minister, resigned in August 2016 after allegations of her inability to deal with the Patidar and Dalit movement, Rupani was pushed to the hot seat. On February 19, 2016, he was appointed as the chief of Gujarat BJP.
Rupani, a low-profile RSS figure, was back in the chief minister’s chair in 2017 after escaping a violent quota agitation by the power factor and Patidars. A law graduate, Rupani was a Rajya Sabha member between 2006 and 2012.
Rupani’s aptitude as a politician was tested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Modi tried for a second time in power.
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