Rawat, Yediyurappa, Rupani: 3 BJP CMs resign in 3 months

Tirath Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand, BS Yediyurappa in Karnataka, and now Vijay Rupani in Gujarat — the BJP has replaced three chief ministers in less than three months.

In a surprise move Saturday afternoon, Rupani stepped down as chief minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state where elections to the 182-member Assembly are due in December next year. Rupani did not offer any clues on why he was leaving, saying instead that he was just “passing on the baton”.

In Karnataka, Lingayat stalwart BS Yediyurappa resigned as chief minister on July 26 with nearly two years to go before his tenure ended in 2023. Yediyurappa, 78, was well over the BJP’s age limit of 75 years for elected posts — he was already over the limit when he became CM, but then the party did not not have a choice — and a section of the party MLAs had rebelled against him.. He was replaced with his confidante Basavaraj Bommai.

In Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as chief minister on July 2 after it became clear that the Election Commission was against holding a bypoll with only a few months to go for elections in the hill state. Rawat, who was an MP, had to contest and win a bypoll to remain CM.

Tirath Singh Rawat resigned just 115 days after he had replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat – so, that makes it four CMs out in about six months. Rawat was replaced by Pushkar Singh Dhami in Uttarakhand.

Rupani, 65, first became chief minister on August 7, 2016, following the resignation of incumbent Anandiben Patel, and continued in office after the BJP’s victory in the 2017 Assembly elections. Hours after his resignation, the names of his deputy Nitin Patel and union minister Mansukh Mandaviya were among the names doing the rounds as possible replacement.



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