(Image source from: India Today)

Former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel Refuses To Contest Gujarat Polls:- The former Gujarat CM, Anandiben Patel (75), has written to BJP leadership saying she does not want to contest the upcoming state elections. Patel was once dropped as the Gujarat CM on grounds of age. And now, she has cited the same reason.

Patel, in her letter to BJP president Amit Shah, wrote that she would like to stay away because of the ‘75-year criterion’ and that she would like to work in the role of a “margadarshak”. She further urged him to nominate a local BJP worker, instead of her in Ghatlodiya. Patel has represented the Ghatlodiya constituency since 1998.

(Video Source: ABP News)

“When I resigned as chief minister of Gujarat, I had cited the BJP policy of not holding posts beyond the age of 75. Based on the same principle, I do not intend to contest the 2017 assembly election,” Patel wrote.

Following the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Patel had replaced Narendra Modi as chief minister, but abruptly made way for current incumbent Vijay Rupani - an Amit Shah confidante - last year. The age was the factor the party had referred to when they looked for he replacement.

Her detractors in the party also used Patel reservation agitation during Patel’s tenure and her handling of the situation, to seek a mid-term leadership change. Patel‘s decision not to contest polls would hamper BJP’s last minute attempts to woo the core Patidar voters back into the party fold.

For almost twenty years, Patel has been an MLA. Interestingly, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy last week suggested in a series of posts that she made the face of the party in the upcoming state election.

SUPRAJA