Former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani among those killed in Air India crash, was on his way to London to meet daughter

A two-term CM, Rupani was the BJP in-charge for Punjab, where a bypoll is set to be held in Ludhiana West. There are also two bypolls scheduled in Gujarat, one in Visvadar in Junagadh and the other in Kadi in Mehsana.

“This is a very sad incident. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. We have lost two-time former chief minister Vijay Rupani in the crash, which is very sad news for the BJP family,” Union Minister and state BJP president C R Paatil told reporters in Ahmedabad.

Former Punjab CM and BJP leader Captain Amarinder Singh said Rupani’s “unwavering commitment to public service” would always be remembered, while state BJP president Sunil Jakhar, who worked closely with Rupani, said the former Gujarat CM was a “humble and compassionate human being and a grassroots leader”.

“I have had the lucky fortune of being associated with him as he was in charge of Punjab BJP. He was a real ‘gentleman politician’. Not only Gujarat has lost a great leader in him but it is a personal loss for me, as I found his gentle and soft demeanour so endearing. His sagacity and simplicity in public life will be missed,” Jakhar said.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma also expressed condolences in a post on social media. “For years, he dedicated himself to the service of the people and in strengthening the party in Gujarat and elsewhere. His loss leaves a deep void in public life and I will miss my many interactions with him over the years,” he wrote.

As news of Rupani being on board the ill-fated flight became public, Rajkot BJP leader Kashmira Nathwani reached the veteran leader’s home in the city that he once served as Mayor. “I spoke to Anjaliben (Vijay Rupani’s wife) just two days back. She told me that Vijay bhai would be joining them and then she would return with him at the end of this month,” Nathwani told The Indian Express.

Start of political career

Rupani, who hailed from Rajkot in the state’s Saurashtra region, started his political innings with the RSS’s student wing ABVP in 1973. A former stockbroker, he served as the chairman of the Saurashtra-Kutch Stock Exchange Limited and started his journey in mainstream politics in 1987, when he was first elected to the Rajkot Municipal Corporation. He subsequently went on to become the Rajkot Mayor.

A committed organisation man, Rupani held several top posts in the state BJP, including general secretary, spokesperson, and eventually state president. In 2006, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha.

In October 2014, the BJP fielded Rupani in an Assembly bypoll from the Rajkot (West) seat after Vajubhai Vala was appointed Karnataka Governor. It was the seat Prime Minister Narendra Modi had contested when he first entered the Gujarat Assembly in 2001. Rupani won the seat, a BJP bastion, easily and was inducted into the Anandiben Patel government as a Cabinet minister with various portfolios, including water supply, and labour and employment.

With his political star rising, Rupani next took charge of the state BJP in February 2016. That August, after Anandiben Patel resigned as CM in the aftermath of the Patidar quota stir, Rupani succeeded her as CM. The appointment was made following a marathon meeting at the party’s state headquarters, Shree Kamalam, in the presence of top party leaders, including Patel and Amit Shah. The party also named senior leader Nitin Patel as the Deputy CM.

Rupani’s biggest political challenge came in the Assembly elections of December 2017. The party faced a stiff challenge from the Congress and finished with its lowest tally since 1995. Rupani’s second term as CM, however, passed off without any major controversy, with the BJP winning all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019 for the second consecutive time. It also saw the BJP retaining all eight municipal corporations in the civic polls. In the subsequent taluka and district panchayat polls, the BJP regained the ground it had lost to the Congress in 2017.

However, cautious about avoiding a 2017 rerun in the following Assembly elections, the BJP carried out an organisational overhaul, changing everyone right from the chief minister and state president to ministers and office-bearers in September 2021. The next year, Rupani told The Indian Express in an interview that he had resigned within hours of being asked.

“They told me the previous night and I submitted the resignation the very next day … I have always done what the party has asked me to do. The party made me chief minister, so I became one. Then the party told me that they are replacing me and I told them to do it happily. As a good worker, I have never gone against the party line, and therefore tendered my resignation the very next day… And I submitted it with a smiling face, not a sulking one,” he said.

In September 2022, the veteran leader was appointed the BJP’s in-charge for Punjab and Chandigarh, and last December was deputed as the observer for the Maharashtra BJP Legislature Party meeting.

Rupani is survived by his wife Anjali, son Rushabh, and daughter Radhika.