Dalit fire, Patel ire and land mire force Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel to retire

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI: Gujarat's first woman chief minister, Anandiben Patel, dramatically quit on Monday, posting her resignation letter on her official website, linked to Facebook and Twitter. Her exit, which had been anticipated for some time, could help the BJP leadership's efforts to repair the political damage in the party's stronghold of Gujarat ahead of the assembly polls+ , scheduled for end-2017.

Anandiben+ announced her resignation at around 5pm before proceeding to meet governor O P Kohli at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar.

She was under pressure for almost a year following a strident quota agitation by the Patels - BJP's main votebank in Gujarat. Subsequent allegations of land scams involving her family members and the latest protests over flogging of Dalits by 'gau rakshaks' in Una on July 11 added to her woes, amid growing realisation within the BJP that she may not be able to ensure victory for the party in the assembly elections.

Veteran minister Nitin Patel and state party chief Vijay Rupani are said to be frontrunners to succeed Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, although BJP national president Amit Shah's name is also doing the rounds in the state capital. Patel has the advantage of belonging to the influential community, which has been the core of the saffron base and needs to be placated. However, Rupani, a Jain, is considered to be more energetic and could help the party do a tightrope walk in a scenario of competing demands of different castes. It's unclear as to whether Shah, who's spearheading BJP's campaign to wrest UP in next year's elections, would want to give up his very powerful all-India position to return to his home state.

A meeting of the parliamentary board is to be called shortly to accept the resignation, a mere formality, and to appoint Patel's successor.

Anandiben+ said she decided to pass on the baton in deference to the age ceiling of 75 years laid down by PM Modi and because she wanted her successor to get time to prepare for the Vibrant Gujarat summit in January.

However, the chief trigger could be the leadership's concern about mounting problems in Gujarat, a state it has controlled since the 1990s, which served as the launch pad for Modi's successful bid to become PM. Besides the threat of the loss of a section of Patels, the leadership is also having to contend with the estrangement of Dalits and the efforts of rivals to stitch together a coalition comprising Scheduled Castes and Muslims.

Anandiben's resignation was the subject of speculation since Hardik Patel started his campaign for a Patel quota. Many in the party felt she did not respond well to the challenge, which threatened to dent BJP's hold over Patels. Allegations of corruption were another worry. But it was her failure to respond promptly to the public flogging of Dalits for skinning a dead cow that proved to be the tipping point for the leadership, sources said. The footage of cow vigilantes mercilessly assaulting four Dalits could have repercussions for BJP's effort to woo Dalits, a significant objective for the UP polls, and the larger effort of the RSS to consolidate the Hindu vote.

The leadership appeared to have decided to change her in April-May but could not execute the plan because of its preoccupation with assembly elections and, more important, its inability to find a suitable successor. Anandiben read the writing on the wall and offered to quit in June when she met Modi and Amit Shah during the BJP national executive in Allahabad.

Though she was allowed to continue, there were indications of the central leadership's increased involvement in decisions, including the appointment of senior bureaucrats like the chief secretary and IPS officers. According to sources, this convinced the CM that her time was up.

This time, with rivals using the Una atrocity to mobilise Dalits against BJP, the leadership made no effort to get her to retrace her steps. Shah told reporters that Anandiben sent her resignation in the morning itself; that is, hours before she went public on Facebook and Twitter.

However, the leadership appeared to be bolstering Anandiben's case that the decision to go was entirely her own. "She herself has said she wanted someone to take over before Vibrant Gujarat and the state polls later next year," Shah said, confirming that the CM had offered to quit earlier but was persuaded to stay on.

Party sources also said Anandiben would be given a respectful farewell in which Modi and Shah would be present. She is likely to be accommodated as a governor.

 Though the resignation came an hour after Congress member Shankersinh Vaghela accused Anandiben of a Rs 11,000 crore scam, BJP dismissed the charge as baseless and politically motivated.

This was in order, given the standing that the outgoing CM has in the BJP.

Anandiben was Modi's obvious choice as CM when he became PM in May 2014. She was hand-picked by him in the mid-80s and roped in to head the BJP women's wing in the state. She remained his closest loyalist even when Modi was banished from Gujarat in the mid-90s at the behest of the then CM Keshubhai Patel.

 In the run-up to her resignation, Anandiben announced a series of populist steps like withdrawing scores of cases against Patidar members, exempting cars from toll tax on state highways and speedy implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for state employees. All this, while her senior colleagues kept complaining that she was taking decisions and making announcements without consulting the cabinet.

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