Who is Bhupendra Patel? All you need to know about the new Gujarat chief minister

Bhupendra Patel, 59, the MLA from Ghatlodia constituency has been picked by the BJP to be the new chief minister of Gujarat in place of Vijay Rupani. He will be sworn in on Monday.

Patel was elected the new leader of the BJP legislative party at a meeting of state MLAs on Sunday afternoon in the presence of central observers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Joshi. His name was proposed by CM Rupani.

After the meeting, union minister and BJP's Gujarat-in-charge Narendra Singh Tomar came out and announced his name to the media.


# Bhupendra Patel is known to be a protege of former Gujarat chief minister, and now Uttar Pradesh governor, Anandiben Patel.

# He is a first-time MLA who won the Ghatlodiya seat defeating Congress candidate Shashikant Patel by 117,000 votes in the 2017 assembly elections, the largest margin in that poll.

# Patel was not in any ministry earlier, But, he was the chairman of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority between 2015 and 2017; and the the standing committee chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation between 2010 and 2015.

# A soft-spoken MLA with a smiling face, he is fondly called 'Dada' by many party workers.

# He has a diploma in civil engineering , and is a builder by profession.

# He is associated with social work in Ahmedabad and is a trustee of Sardardham Vishwa Patidar Kendra, an organisation dedicated to the socio-economic development of the Patidar community

# After Rupani's surprise resignation on Saturday the buzz was that the BJP would settle for a patidar MLA to get the caste equation right before the assembly polls. Other names -- including that of Dy CM Nitin Patel, union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Lakshadweep administrator Praful Patel -- were doing the rounds, but finally the party settled for Bhupendra Patel.