Ahead of the Assembly elections, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Monday offered to resign, requesting the BJP leadership to relieve her from the post as she is soon going to be 75.
Patel, who will turn 75 on November 21, also said the BJP needed a fresh face in the state before the elections due next year.
“For quite some time now, there has been a tradition in the party that those who attain the age of 75, voluntarily retire from their posts. I will attain the age of 75 in November,” the state’s first woman chief minister, who succeeded Narendra Modi on 22 May 2014, said in a Facebook post.
Two months ago I had requested the party to relieve me from the post and today also through this letter, I request the party to relieve me of the postAnandiben Patel, Gujarat Chief Minister
I am asking the party to relieve me two months in advance as the new chief minister will require the time to work, when the state is going to face elections in 2017 and an important event like Vibrant Gujarat Summit to be held in JanuaryAnandiben Patel, Gujarat Chief Minister
The unwritten convention in the party, set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in recent times has been that those attaining the age of 75 have to quit the post.
Patel had to face some upsets as BJP recently fared badly in the rural civic bodies polls in December 2015 and the opposition Congress made gains at the cost of the saffron rival.
She also had to face the fierce quota agitation by the Patel community, one of the factors which contributed to the BJP losing in rural local bodies polls, while retaining urban areas.
Recently, the Dalit uprising after the Una thrashing incident had also dented the image of party.
BJP President Amit Shah said that the party’s parliamentary board will decide on the replacement for Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who has offered to resign.
Soon after Patel went public with her offer to quit, Shah said she wanted her replacement to get adequate time to prepare for Vibrant Gujarat summit to be held in January 2017 and the Assembly polls later next year.
(Inputs: PTI)
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)