With the BJP Parliamentary Board accepting Anandiben Patel’s “offer” to quit and making it clear that BJP President Amit Shah would not be in the race, Gujarat’s first woman Chief Minister will resign on Wednesday evening, paving the way for the election of her successor.

Anandiben will submit her resignation to Governor O.P. Kohli at 1700 hours on Wednesday. The Governor is expected to accept the resignation and urge her to continue in office until her successor takes over.

These swift political developments are taking place at a time when state officials are packing their bags to reach out to investors in 23 countries through road-shows for the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit to be held in January 2017. Significantly, Anandiben had cited the summit and the impending Assembly elections in 2017, as reasons for her quitting early so that her successor gets enough time to prepare for these mega-events.

The BJP Legislature Party (BJPLP) will hold a meeting here on Thursday to elect a new leader. Among the probable candidates to succeed Anandiben are Gujarat BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Bhikhubhai Dalsania, a Patel leader from Jamnagar drafted into the BJP from the RSS, and senior ministers Nitin Patel and Vijay Rupani, who is also the state BJP chief.

History may be repeating itself. After the 2001 earthquake, the BJP had replaced the incumbent Keshubhai Patel with Narendra Modi, amid intra-party bickering and a possible defeat in the 2002 Assembly polls. Anandiben Patel, too, is being “replaced” in the backdrop of the ruling party’s enfeebled political base in the wake of the massive agitations by the Patel and Dalit communities. In fact, the BJP is likely to elect a new CM on the day when BSP chief Mayawati is also visiting Gujarat to meet the Una Dalit victims.

Interestingly, in 2001, alleged corruption charges levelled against the Keshubhai Patel family were a major reason for his replacement. This time, too, similar charges have been levelled against Anandiben’s family members as a major reason!

After the meeting of the party’s highest decision-making body in New Delhi, Union Minister M Venkaiyah Nayudu said Amit Shah was not in the race to succeed Anandiben. Shah, who is a sitting party MLA from Naranpura Assembly constituency in Ahmedabad, would attend the meeting to “choose” the new leader in Gandhinagar on Thursday.

Ahead of this exercise, BJP General Secretary V Sathish and the party’s Gujarat in-charge Dinesh Sharma met party leaders in the state capital to elicit their views on the change of guard. The party also appointed Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and BJP General Secretary Saroj Pandey as central observers for the BJPLP meeting. Significantly, senior party leader Om Mathur, who is seen as the eyes and ears of the Modi-Shah combine in New Delhi and Gandhinagar, is not so far in the picture for the change of guard in the state.

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