Anandiben Patel Gujarat CM offers to quit

Ahead of the Assembly elections, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today offered to resign requesting the BJP leadership to relieve her from the post as she is soon going to be 75.

Under the leadership of Patel, who has been a minister in the BJP government since 1998 and CM from 2014, the BJP for the first time in the post-Narendra Modi era in Gujarat is facing a tough challenge from its opponents.

Patel, who will turn 75 on November 21, also said the BJP needed a fresh face in the state before the elections due next year.

"For the last some time there has been a tradition in the party that those who attain the age of 75, voluntarily retires from the post. I will attain the age of 75 in November," the state's first woman chief minister, who succeeded Narendra Modi on May 22, 2014, said in a Facebook post.

"Two months ago I had requested the party to relieve me from the post and today also through this letter, I request the party to relieve me of the post," Patel said.

"I am asking the party to relieve me two months in advance as the new chief minister will require the time to work, when the state is going to face elections in 2017 and an important event like Vibrant Gujarat Summit to be held in January," Patel said.

"It (the rule of 75) is a good thing and it will give a chance to young leaders to come up," she added.

Elections in the state are due in the later part of 2017.

The unwritten convention in the party, set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in recent times has been that those attaining the age of 75 have to quit the post.

Patel had to faced some upsets as BJP recently fared badly in the rural civic bodies polls in December 2015 and the opposition Congress making gains at the cost of the saffron rival.

She also had to face the fierce Patel community quota agitation, one of the factors which contributed to BJP losing in rural local bodies polls, while retaining urban areas.

Recently, the Dalit uprising after the Una trashing incident had also dented the image of party. 

Speculation has been rife over Patel's fate ever since the undeclared age bar put by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on retirement from existing posts at 75.

Patel, who took over as CM in May 2014 from Modi, will cross the age bar of 75 years on November 21 this year as she was born in 1941.

Union Minister Najma Heptulla, who crossed 75 years, was reportedly sounded recently to submit her resignation due to the age bar.

Earlier, a couple of ministers in Madhya Pradesh including senior BJP leader Babubal Gaur and Sartaj Singh were dropped from the state cabinet by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan due to age bar.

In 2014, when the Narendra Modi government came to power, the age bar had apparently come in the way of ministerial berths for senior leaders like L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha.

Sinha had in the past remarked that BJP has "declared brain dead on May 26, 2014" its leaders above the age of 75.

Under the leadership of Anandiben Patel, who has been a minister in the BJP government since 1998 and Chief Minister from 2014, the BJP has faced some tough challenges in post-Modi era in Gujarat, where elections are due in the later part of 2017.

The BJP had fared poorly in in the rural civic bodies polls in December 2015, which was considered as a major loss for her as opposition Congress was able to put up a good showing after almost 25 years in the state.

She also had to face the fierce Patel community quota agitation, one of the factors which contributed to BJP losing in rural local bodies polls, while retaining urban areas.