Remembering the Many Lives of Vijay Rupani: CM, 'Source', Perhaps a Friend

The former Gujarat CM’s untimely death is a grim reminder of a life lived on the edge, writes Deepal Trivedi.

Former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani passed away in a tragic air crash in Ahmedabad on 12 June, along with 240 other passengers and crew onboard.

(Photo: Altered by Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Former Gujarat Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Vijay Rupani, who died in the Ahmedabad plane crash, was a humble human being, for whom human relationships and commitment mattered more than party positions.

Rupani had a life filled with several surprises and setbacks—and his death is yet another grim reminder about how he always lived on the edge.

Either he enjoyed absolute power or he was a nobody. There was no room for anything in between. It was either a mountain or valley for him.

An Unlikely CM

When he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, it was out of the blue. The Patels of Gujarat were protesting against Anandiben Patel, who had taken over in 2014 when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

At that point of time, Modi’s closest confidantes were Anandiben and Amit Shah, and both of them did not get along well with each other.

Anandiben was ready to step down as the Chief Minister, provided her candidate Nitin Patel was inducted as the Chief Minister. Amit Shah, who was sent to Gujarat on a firefighting mission, however, sprung a surprise by putting up Vijay Rupani as the Chief Minister. He was a compromise candidate. 

Except for an unremarkable junior ministerial stint, Rupani’s biggest achievement then was being a BJP spokesperson from Rajkot in Saurashtra.

Rupani became Chief Minister very unexpectedly in August 2016. His exit was unexpected, too. In September 2021, he had gone home for lunch when he heard murmurs that he was being replaced.

He tried to call up some senior BJP leaders, but his phone was reportedly not received. He was replaced with Bhupendra Patel. Gujarat was scheduled to have Assembly elections in 2022—and there were land deal allegations and charges of poor governance against Rupani. Rupani not only resigned gracefully, but never spoke about his humiliation. He also vowed to remain loyal to the BJP and his alma mater, the RSS.

A Man of Fairness

As an editor, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I exposed how he had doled out favours to a Rajkot-based industrialist who had sold mechanical ambu bags disguised as ventilators to the Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Kerala governments.

Following the expose, the Kerala and Maharashtra governments scrapped the contract. Gujarat chose to go ahead but a fire due to the ambu bag resulted in the party high command deciding to question Rupani’s decision of contract allotment.

When he had become the Chief Minister, I had travelled with him from his office in Gandhinagar to three private venues in Ahmedabad. Rupani had decided not to use the police escort. However, the ambu bags series ensured a bitterness between us. He refused to grant me interviews—and I refused to budge.

Post-pandemic, when we met up, he was as graceful as pre-COVID. We met over dinner at his official bungalow where he told me, “After all, you were doing your job and I was doing mine”.

He later invited me for a family function, a wedding which I could not attend as I was travelling. I last spoke to him in December, almost six months back, when he called up to condole my father’s death.

He told me that he was in Punjab as the BJP incharge. In fact, according to his family, he was supposed to go to London earlier but with by-elections in Ludhiana West, he delayed his trip—and his wife Anjali travelled alone. He and Anjali had met in Paldi at the ABVP office in Ahmedabad. Anjali was a Maharashtrian with a solid RSS background.

While I worked as an education reporter at the time with The Indian Express, Rupani became “my source” in the 90s.

His and Anjali’s love story was phenomenal. They never argued, and Anjali, who was a firebrand student leader, gave up her political ambitions for a while after she married Rupani.

It may now be interesting to watch out if she makes a political entry in 2027 with a ticket from Rajkot.

Roots in RSS

Rupani, who hailed from Rajkot in the state’s Saurashtra region, started his political innings with the RSS’s student wing ABVP in 1973. A former stockbroker, he served as the chairman of the Saurashtra-Kutch Stock Exchange Limited and started his journey in mainstream politics in 1987 when he was first elected to the Rajkot Municipal Corporation. He subsequently went on to become the Rajkot Mayor.

His best-known stint, however, was as the party spokesman and then as the state president. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2006.

In 2014, he entered the electoral battlefield for the first time and became a minister under Anandiben Patel’s chief ministership. In 2016, he was made the Gujarat BJP president.

The Patidar elections saw Anandiben being replaced—and Rupani landing the Chief Ministerial position just in two years of his first stint as an MLA.

However, the BJP saw its worst electoral performance since 1995 in the 2017 Assembly elections. In 2019, however, the BJP won all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat for the second consecutive time—and the saffron party also won all the eight municipal corporations in Gujarat.

To avoid a repeat of 2017, the BJP went for a rejig in September 2021 and replaced the entire ministry and state president, which saw Rupani going home. He said he was wedded to the RSS ideology—and positions did not matter to him. For me, relationships matter more than positions, Vijay Rupani used to say.

On Thursday, 12 June, Rupani died with 241 others in a plane crash. Ironically, his death date ,12/6, is what his lucky number was. From his first scooter to his last car, he always bought vehicles which had 1206 as its number plate.

Rupani is survived by his wife Anjali, son Rushabh, and daughter Radhika.

(Deepal Trivedi is the CEO and Founder Editor Gujarat news portal of Vibes of India. She tweets at @DeepalTrevedie. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)