The ‘irreplaceable’ CR Paatil: Why BJP cannot seem to do without its reluctant Gujarat chief

Paatil also made two more significant decisions about the organisation. He relieved senior party leader Dharmendra Shah of his responsibilities as state co-treasurer and the Ahmedabad city unit in-charge and replaced state BJP’s office secretary Paresh Patel, who was appointed the party’s state secretary, with Shrinath Shah who was Paatil’s assistant for the past few years at Gujarat BJP and before that worked for senior BJP leader L K Advani.

“The kind of decision he took, nobody would have expected it. It gives a clear message that Paatil is going to stay as party president till around December and the crucial elections of local bodies will be fought under his leadership. The high command must have communicated to him to continue for the next around six months notwithstanding his reluctance to do so,” said a senior state BJP office-bearer.

At the Gujarat BJP’s extended state executive meeting in Botad district’s Sarangpur earlier this month, Paatil announced his wish to be relieved as its president. Paatil said he had conveyed this to the state BJP leadership as well, citing the party’s “one person, one post” rule.

“The local body polls are crucial ahead of the next Gujarat Assembly elections (in 2027). And the high command would have thought it necessary to have Paatil to steer the party organisation till then. A new party president needs some time to set up his team in the entire state and so Paatil must have been asked to continue till the local body polls,” said another senior BJP leader.

The leader added, “This will be a bit of a strenuous job for Paatil since he has to perform as Union Minister of Water Resources as well. It also shows his importance in Gujarat and the party’s compulsion to continue with him for now.”

Under Paatil’s leadership, the party won a record 156 of 182 Assembly seats in the 2022 elections. This was attributed to the organisational changes he effected since taking over, including the setting up of “page committees” that are essentially a group of party workers or supporters given the responsibility of one page of voters in a constituency. He also supervised the exercise of replacing the Vijay Rupani-led government with the Bhupendra Patel-led administration in September 2021.