Anandiben Patel: Frontrunner for Gujarat CM's Post

Ahmedabad: Gujarat revenue minister Anandiben Patel, 72, is the clear frontrunner in the race to replace Narendra Modi as the chief minister of Gujarat. Mr Modi, who will be sworn in as India's Prime Minister on Monday, is expected to resign as chief minister around 3pm today after attending a special session of the state legislative assembly where he will be given a farewell. Later at 4 pm he will attend the meeting of the BJP legislature party at the Town Hall Gandhinagar where his successor will be chosen. If Ms Patel gets the nod, she will become the first woman chief minister of the state. Ms Patel enjoys the complete trust of the Prime Minister-elect, and is non-controversial. She stood by Mr Modi even after he was banished from state politics after entering into a confrontation with other state-level BJP leaders in the mid-1990s. Besides, she is also known for her administrative acumen, and has handled portfolios as diverse as revenue, education and urban development. The senior BJP leader, who was elected to the state assembly in 2012 from Ghatlodiya in Ahmedabad by a huge margin of 1.10 lakh votes, is said to be a strict disciplinarian, and is known to be a hard task-master. Perhaps, that is the reason why she was chosen to lead the Group of Ministers that was formed to run the state government, leaving Mr Modi free to campaign across the country in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Her biggest limitation, her colleagues say, is the lack of her connect with the party's grassroot-level workers. Party leaders point out that, given her inaccessibility not many in the party are fond of her. She also does not share a good rapport with Amit Shah, another BJP leader considered close to Mr Modi. The other BJP leaders in the running for the chief minister's post are Bhiku Dalsaniya, who's a general secretary in the party's Gujarat unit, finance minister Nitin Patel and energy and petrochemical minister Saurabh Patel.   Source: NDTV