Gujarat minister Jagdish Vishwakarma was on Saturday declared the new president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit, succeeding Union Minister CR Patil. Thanking the party leadership, Vishwakarma said that his true identity is “not as a state president, but as the worker”. As Patil passed the baton to Vishwakarma, he expressed regret that the party could not win all 182 assembly seats of Gujarat under his leadership in the 2022 state assembly elections, even as he said the party would resolve to achieve this in the next election. He said he was responsible for the loss of one Lok Sabha seat to the Opposition Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Addressing partymen at Shree Kamalam, BJP’s headquarters in Gandhinagar, as Vishwakarma formally took charge, Patil who was chief for over five years, two on extension, said “I regret that we could not win 182 seats and stopped at 156. In the by elections, we won six more seats and reached 162. In Lok Sabha too, despite the fact that we won 26 out of 26 seats on two occasions (earlier), during my presidency we lost one seat (in 2024) and I accept the responsibility of that defeat and request you all to be careful so that it does not happen again.” Under Patil’s leadership, Gujarat BJP registered a historic victory in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections breaking the record of Congress’ victory of the 1980s when the party had won 149 of 182 seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, after 10 years, the Congress managed to win one of the 26 seats, with the rest going to the BJP. In 2014 and 2019, Gujarat BJP had won all 26 Lok Sabha seats. Patil referred to the party’s stellar performance ‘not only in politics but also in the cooperative sector’ where the party had won 349 out of 350 elections of several cooperative organisations in the state. Defending his decision to introduce the system of giving mandate in elections of cooperatives, he said, “Some people certainly did not like it. Those who were in alliance with Congress and who would set themselves in the cooperative sector certainly did not like it. They spread propaganda that this mandate system should be removed. I told them that in that case why should we give mandate in the elections of MLA and its organisation are disciplined. The party should know whatever the worker is doing. And when he is fighting an election, even in the cooperative sector, it should be fought with a mandate as per party’s discipline.” Recalling the time when he took charge in 2019, Patil said, “Around five years back when Narendrabhai Modi and Amitbhai Shah gave me the responsibility of Gujarat BJP president, I had doubts in my mind whether I was capable to carry out such a big responsibility.(We had) blessings and guidance of Modi and Shah because of which in over five years whatever challenges came before Gujarat BJP, we could successfully overcome it”. “(And) you had an important role in that,” he told the partymen. He said that it was a “misfortune” that the party lost 26 seats in the 2022 assembly elections by a collective margin of around 3.05 lakh votes in the state. During his speech, Patil highlighted several electoral achievements of BJP during his tenure and said, “We could fulfill the expectations of PM Modi under the guidance of Amit Shah and for that I thank all the voters and party workers.” He also talked about certain rules introduced in the party like not giving tickets to those aged above 60 in the local bodies elections. “Because of that, lots of new people got elected. In Ahmedabad, 115 new corporators were elected. Around 100 new corporators elected in Surat. In taluka panchayat, district panchayat and municipal corporations, lots of new candidates got elected,” Patil said. Patil apologised to anyone who could have sustained some damage due to any of his decisions as party president while adding that he took all the decisions in the interest of the party and none of them was for personal reasons. Meanwhile, Vishwakarma thanked the top leadership for having faith in him and giving him the responsibility. “My true identity is not as a state president, but as the worker,” a party release quoted Vishwakarma as saying. He recollected the sacrifices of veteran party leaders, who “made the party what it is today”. “The responsibility given to me by the top leadership of the party is not my alone. It is the responsibility of all the BJP workers. For me whether it is a booth president or district president, both are equal,” Vishwakarma said while asserting the importance of a party worker in BJP. He said, “When BJP is a party of an ideology, the status and value of a party worker is supreme.Party workers are the true capital of BJP.” Inspiring the party workers, Vishwakarma recollected the words of PM Modi in an old Gujarati saying and said, “Nishan chuk maaf, nahi maaf nichu nishan (Missing a target is forgivable, but aiming too low is not.)” Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who was present on the occasion, expressed his wishes to Vishwakarma and appealed to people to buy indigenous goods during Diwali to achieve the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Vishwakarma had reached the party office after carrying out a rally from his residence in Thakkarbapanagar. Vishwakarma was elected as the party president after he emerged as the sole candidate to have filed his nomination for the top party post. His election as party president was formally declared by in-charge of Gujarat BJP and Union minister Bhupender Yadav. Yadav also declared the names of 39 persons elected unopposed to the party’s national council. Those among the 39 include Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister Nimuben Bambhaniya, CM Bhupendra Patel, former party presidents C R Patil, Vajubhai Vala, Rajendrasinh Rana, Parshottam Rupala, R C Faldu and Jitu Vaghani. It also includes some noted names like former ministers Maya Kodnani, Ranjana Bhatt, Ganpat Vasava, Dilip Thakor etc.
