Anandiben Patel's exit from the top job in Gujarat was just a matter of time. Yet, her desire to quit has exposed the fault lines in the party in the state.
A first woman chief minister, tough administrator, person of few words and known to be idealistic, Anandiben did not get the support of some within her team and party, according to sources. While it was known that she was unlikely to continue after she turned 75 in November, Anandiben faced resistance from within adding to her troubles from outside like the Patel and Dalit agitations. She finally asked to be "relieved", two months before she turned 75.
The BJP Parliamentary Board is all set to meet on Wednesday, ahead of the meeting of the state legislators to decide on her successor. According to sources, party president Amit Shah was trying to verify the availability of members of the Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of the party. The Parliamentary Board is expected to meet in the morning before the House meets on a day when the Rajya Sabha is to take up the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill.
The BJP is already focusing on who the next chief minister would be. One of the frontrunners is Vijay Rupani, the state party chief. However, there is speculation that a Patel may be replaced with a Patel, bringing health minister Nitin Patel's name into the race for the post.
Going by the moves Anandiben made over the past few days, it was apparent that she had made up her mind, after a two-year stint as chief minister in a male-dominated political world. She was held responsible for mishandling the Patel agitation for job reservation and more recently the Dalit protest. With Gujarat heading for elections in 2017, the party would have to keep in mind undoing the damage and political equations while choosing the next chief minister.
Sources said the differences with her of a few in her team were not as much because of issues, policies or schemes as in view of their own chief ministerial ambitions.
Those who have worked with Anandiben describe her as someone who was a disciplinarian and did not believe in obliging. She too was a Modi loyalist, like Shah, though she may not have had his political skills, the sources said. Shah and Anandiben not seeing eye to eye also stemmed partly from the fact that they were both Modi loyalists.
She would not have done anything to embarrass Modi, the sources said. Keeping this in mind, Anandiben would not have wanted the Prime Minister to make an exception in her case on breaching the cut off age of 75.
The chief minister is understood to have had several rounds of meetings with Modi and Shah in Allahabad in June on the sidelines of the BJP national executive, in which she offered to step down. The top leadership then did not give its nod for her to step down immediately, sources said.
While the Dalits agitation seemed to have stepped up pressure, sources said the state government had taken immediate action on it.
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