Not at least in next 25 years…: Hardik Patel has a message for new Gujarat CM

The Opposition in Gujarat welcomed the new chief minister with a jibe claiming first-time MLA Bhupendra Patel may have a tough time to save the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next election given its monumental failure in handling the coronavirus crisis, besides other major concerns.

While extending his wishes to the new CM, Congress working president Hardik Patel said the ruling BJP was trying to hide its failures ahead of the next Assembly elections by bringing a new face. “But what your party could not do in the fields of education and health, for women, youth and farmers in 25 years, how would you achieve the same in one year?”

The new CM’s name was announced by Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday, a day after Vijay Rupani gave up the reins.

He further claimed the BJP got its last chief minister in Patel, because for at least the next 25 years, the state’s voters have decided to keep the anti-poor and anti-youth party away from power. “Now, it’s time to not just change the chief minister, but the entire party,” the Patidar agitation leader further wrote in a tweet.

Earlier, he said the resignation of Rupani as the chief minister had made it clear that the BJP was unsuccessful in running the government.

Also read | Who is Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat CM, first-time MLA and minister?

Meanwhile, independent MLA Jignesh Mevani used a line of late actor AK Hangal from the famous yesteryear blockbuster ‘Sholay’ to welcome the new CM. He wrote “Itna sannata kyun hai bhai?” (Why is there so much silence).

Following Rupani’s resignation on Saturday, Mevani had written that the BJP had removed him to save the party’s fortunes and not to save the public “People of Gujarat would have appreciated had Rupani resigned for his monumental mismanagement of Covid crisis. This resignation comes purely to take care of electoral arithmetic keeping 2022 assembly polls in mind,” he wrote in another tweet.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said his

party’s growing influence in Gujarat had forced the ruling camp to change its CM face.

“Be it Uttarakhand or Gujarat where the AAP has entered, the BJP had to change the chief ministers. They changed the chief minister in Uttarakhand several times. Now is the time for Gujarat. The influence of AAP is growing in Gujarat. AAP is the big reason that BJP needs to change the chief minister in Gujarat,” news agency ANI quoted Chadha as saying.