Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday, 8 December won the Ghatlodia constituency in Ahmedabad with a margin of over 1.92 lakh votes as results were declared for the Gujarat Assembly elections.
Patel will take oath as the chief minister on 12 December for the second time, Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil said on Thursday, as the Bharatiya Janata Party won with a historic mandate over 150 seats in the state.
More about him? Patel belongs to the politically crucial Patidar community, and has also served as the chairperson of the Ahmedabad Urban Development authority and is a former chairperson of the standing committee of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Challenges so far? On taking over as Chief Minister of the state post Vijay Rupani's exit, he was faced with the COVID-19 crisis and the economic and social distress that followed.
The greatest crisis for his government until now, however, has been the Morbi bridge collapse just week ahead of the elections, which took at least 141 lives.
How did he fare previously? Patel became a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly for the Ghatlodia constituency after winning the 2017 elections with a margin of 1,17,000 – the largest in that election.
Why is this constituency important? Prior to him, the seat belonged to the BJP's Anandiben Patel, who has also served as the first female CM of Gujarat. In fact, this is a constituency that has given the state two of its last three chief ministers.
Even more interestingly, the constituency came into existence after the Sarkhej Assembly constituency was carved out following a delimitation exercise. It has seen only two legislative Assembly elections, that is, in 2012 and in 2017.
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