New Delhi: BJP’s Vjay Rupani, in a shock move, resigned as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, with just a year to go for the state polls.
“To Further develop the state with new energy and power, I have decided to resign as Chief Minister,” Mr Rupani told presspersons, adding he will continue to work for the party.
Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani was less charitable in his assessment of the Chief Minister, blaming him for the Covid mismanagement.
“People of Gujarat would have appreciated had Mr. Rupani resigned for his monumental mismanagement of Covid crisis,” said Mr Mevani posted on Twitter.
In May, the state was accused of underreporting the Covid deaths. In July, a video from a well-known Gujarat government-run hospital showed ants crawling on the face of a paralysed Covid patient prompting an enquiry. The same month, the Vijay Rupani-led government was pulled up by the Supreme Court for bringing a notification to reverse the top court’s order on fire safety norms in Covid hospitals.
“This resignation comes purely to take care of electoral arithmetic keeping 2022
