As BJP elevates Bhupendra Patel on road to Gujarat polls, will Nitin Patel get a co-Dy CM?

After Bhupendra Patel, the MLA from Gujarat's Ghatlodia constituency, was named the successor to outgoing Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, thought has turned to the cabinet Bhupendra Patel will lead as the state heads towards assembly polls.The revamp holds relevance as the BJP is thought to be taking big decisions to gear up for what promises to be a tightly-contested election at the end of 2022, where the party will face not only a new challenger in the AAP, but more pertinently, over 2 decades of anti-incumbency. The induction of Bhupendra Patel was subsequent to Gujarat BJP's all-party meeting during the day at the party headquarters during which time it was speculated that other names in the mix included newly elevated Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya as well as reigning Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel.

Hours after Vijay Rupani tendered his resignation, the Deputy CM, who was perceived as one of the frontrunners, had aired his view on who should be Rupani's successor. He said that the state needed a leader who could take everyone forward and is liked by everyone to work efficiently towards Gujarat's development. However, while Nitin Patel hasn't been elevated to the Chief Minister's position, sources have also said to Republic that there is a chance that another Deputy CM may be appointed alongside Nitin Patel, with the party aiming to balance its caste and community equations in the lead-up to the polls. Also of interest is to see how the new dynamic between Nitin Patel and CM Bhupendra Patel plays out, as Nitin Patel is seen as being as the more senior politician between the two. 

Nitin Patel had been bullish about the BJP's chances in Gujarat, however, telling reporters that despite the political churn in the state, Gujarat would continue to remain 'saffron' and the Congress, or any other party, stands no chance.

"The whole Gujarat is painted saffron right now. Congress or any other party stands no chance in Gujarat," he had stated.

BJP's election machine gears up for Gujarat elections 2022

Experts say that the change at the helm in the soon-to-be poll-bound state was essential for a number of reasons including the caste factor, the discontent among the Patidar community, and over the handling of the second wave of COVID. It had become clear, soon after Rupani shocked one and all by announcing his resignation, that the BJP was likely to pick its next Chief Minister from the Patidar community. The Patidars' discontent had become apparent even before the 2017 Gujarat polls as Hardik Patel, then only 21 years old, had managed to begin a significant movement for Patidar reservation. Hardik Patel had been joined by fellow young up-starts Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani who campaigned for the Congress in 2017 and gave a tough fight to the BJP.

It is pertinent to note that Bhupendra Patel is a close aide of former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel and won the election to her erstwhile constituency of Ghatlodia with a record margin of 117,000 voters, the largest for any constituency in Gujarat for the BJP in the 2017 elections. Vijay Rupani, speaking to the media in the immediate aftermath of Bhupendra Patel's announcement, said that it would be his successor who would lead the BJP into the December polls in 2022. However, he's hardly the only popular face the BJP has in the state. Gujarat is a subject of prestige for BJP, with both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah hailing from the state. In 2016, after Rupani was chosen the CM one year before the 2017 elections, a faction in Gujarat BJP was apprehensive of the wisdom of the decision because they expected Nitin Patel to be passed the baton. Subsequently, the party won the 2017 elections, albeit with a lower margin, and Rupani retained the CM's chair. 

In the past few months, the BJP comprehensively restructured its Cabinet of Ministers at the Centre and also changed CMs in three BJP-run states, namely, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and now Gujarat.