Rajkot falls silent as it bids farewell to Vijay Rupani

Ahmedabad: The streets of Rajkot wore a sombre look on Saturday as the city shut down till noon as a mark of respect for former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who had lost his life in the London-bound Air India flight 171 crash close to the Ahmedabad airport two days earlier.

"People of Rajkot have downed the shutter by themselves; everyone is devastated," said VP Vaishnav, president of Rajkot Chamber Of Commerce & Industry. "There is not a single soul in Rajkot who didn't know Vijaybhai or whom Vijaibhai didn't know. It is difficult to believe that the man is no more."

The late BJP leader, who served as the CM from August 2016 till September 2021, represented the Rajkot West constituency in the Gujarat legislative assembly from 2014 to 2022.


As many as 650 self-financed schools too remained closed. Rupani D Maheta, president of the self-financed schools association in the city, told ET. "Vijaybhai was the architect of the 21st century Rajkot. From AIIMS to the international airport, Vijaybhai got everything for us."