Anandiben removed as BJP feared defeat in 2017 elections: Congress’ Bharatsinh Solanki

Kamat said that the Congress party had demanded her resignation owing to increasing incidents of atrocities on the Dalits and the recent flogging of four Dalit youths of Mota Samadhiyala village, cruel treatment of Patidars and large scale corruption under her rule. State Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki said that “BJP feared defeat in 2017 assembly elections if Anandiben Patel continued as chief minister and hence, the BJP top leadership got her removed”.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Monday offered to resign, saying it was time for new leadership to take over since she is soon going to turn 75. During Patel’s over two-year-old tenure, the BJP for the first time in the post-Narendra Modi era in Gujarat has faced multiple challenges including defeat in rural areas in the civic polls, a powerful agitation by Patel community for OBC quota and the ongoing Dalit unrest over the flogging incident after the skinning of a dead cow in Una.

BJP President Amit Shah said the party’s Parliamentary Board will decide on the replacement for Patel, who will turn 75 on November 21 and is the first woman chief minister of Gujarat. “She has requested the party to relieve her of her post. I will place the letter she has written to me before the Parliamentary Board and it will take a decision,” Shah told reporters in Delhi.

Patel took to Facebook to request the party leadership to relieve her of the post though speculation has been rife for quite some time that she is on the way out. Elections are due in later part of 2017.