Under fire Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel offers to quit

Anandiben Patel on Monday offered to resign from the post of Gujarat's Chief Minister citing her age. 

In a Facebook post written in Gujarati on Monday, the senior BJP leader talked about her journey in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last 30 years. She reminisced her initial days in the party as a worker and also thanked the party leaders for giving her great responsibilities. 

"From handling the Mahila Morcha to becoming Chief Minister, I am thankful to the party leadership for believing in me. It was because of the opportunities I received while working under an efficient manager and fore-sighted Narendra Modi, that I have progressed in my career," she wrote. 

She further stated that she considers it a victory for women when she became the first female chief minister of Gujarat in 2014.

Her resignation comes in the midst of reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah were disappointed with Anandiben Patel's performance as the chief minister of Gujarat, and that keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections in the state, Anandiben may be removed from her post.

Anandiben Patel said that she is proud to have taken forward the schemes of previous chief minister Narendra Modi as soon as she took over.  

"Shri Narendrabhai acted as a chief minister for over 12 years after which I took over which obviously was as difficult as counting the stars. However, I am proud that I was able to quickly take forward his programmes and I haven't lagged behind."

Anandiben then writes that as she is approaching the age of 75, she has decided to resign from the post. She said that BJP has recently set an example of relieving the ministers of responsibilities who have crossed the age of 75. 

"For the last some time there has been a tradition in the party that those who attain the age of 75, voluntarily retires from the post. I will attain the age of 75 in November. 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 post. 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 January. It (the rule of 75) is a good thing and it will give a chance to young leaders to come up," she wrote.

Responding to her resignation, Amit Shah said, "Have received Anandiben Patel ji's letter. Her letter will now be kept before the BJP Parliamentary board for further decision."

Poor performance by BJP in municipal polls last year

In the last year's municipal elections, the BJP suffered a huge setback in the rural areas. BJP, however, was still ahead in all the six municipal corporations that went to polls, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Vadodara. All the municipal corporations were earlier held by BJP.

The Congress surged ahead in nine district panchayats of Gujarat while the BJP was leading in four out of the total 31 district panchayats that went to polls.

In the last election, the Congress had only won the Tapi district panchayat. In the Zilla Panchayat held in 2015, BJP lost to Congress (BJP-8, Congress 23). In 2015, Taluk Panchayat elections too BJP lost to Congress, with 77 seats, while Congress won 151. 

Una incident

In a recent incident in Gujarat's Una district, few Dalit men were assaulted for allegedly skinning a cow. This may have affected BJP's image in the state ahead of the assembly elections in 2017. This spurted a massive Dalit agitation with leaders from the community saying they will make their voice heard in the upcoming assembly polls. 

Many national leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal too rushed to Una to corner BJP further politically. The saffron party already facing a full blown Patel rebellion in the state was left red-faced with the Dalit agitation and perhaps hastened Anandiben's departure from the top post

Anandiben Patel's daughter in land row

Another controversy that may have dented the BJP's image in the state was the land row in which Anandiben Patel's daughter was reportedly involved. 

A company owned by Anar Patel, Anandiben's daughter, reportedly owns 400 acres of land in Amreli- 250 of which was reportedly allotted to the company at an official rate of Rs 15 per square metre. The transaction between Anar's company and Gujarat govt dates back to  2010-2011, when Anandiben was the Revenue Minister and Narendra Modi was the CM of Gujarat.