Political experts on Saturday said outgoing Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani’s ‘soft-spoken image’ and letting bureaucrats to overrule the political leadership in taking key decisions may have contributed to his image of being a ‘weak’ CM.
The way he handled the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic and social fallouts are likely reasons behind his downfall, some observers told PTI.
The 65-year-old who resigned from the post amidst his second stint as the CM, a year ahead of the Assembly polls, was instrumental in passing major laws including tough anti-conversion law against interfaith marriages, and anti-cow slaughter legislation.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the face of BJP’s high-octane 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign in his home state, it was Rupani, who as Chief Minister was responsible for steering the party machinery in Gujarat.
Low-profile RSS Man to CM
Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) Rupani joined an RSS shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh’s students wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
Before he became the chief minister for the first time in 2016, Rupani worked mostly in the party organisation in Gujarat, and fought his first Assembly election in 2014, winning a bypoll from Rajkot West.
Belonging to the relatively small Jain community, Rupani honed his political skills in the crucible of the Gujarat Navnirman agitation, a socio-political movement in 1974 by students and the middle-class against economic crisis and corruption in public life. The chief minister who was then with the ABVP, was jailed for nearly a year during the Emergency. As the mayor of Rajkot in 1996-97, he endeared himself to the people of the city with his initiatives for the improvement of the civic infrastructure.
In 2006, he headed the Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation. The advertisement 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 first and only Gujarat woman chief minister Anandiben Patel resigned in August 2016 following allegations of inept handling of the Patidar and Dalit agitations, Rupani was catapulted to the hot seat. On February 19, 2016, he was appointed the chief of the Gujarat BJP.
Rupani, a low-profile RSS man, was back in the chief minister’s chair in 2017 after having survived the incumbency factor and a violent quota stir by the Patidars. A bachelor of law, Rupani was a Rajya Sabha member between 2006 and 2012.
Rupani’s mettle as a politician was tested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Modi bid for a second shot at power.
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