Sarbanand Sonowal, under whom the party had contested the elections to the Assam Assembly, resigned even after an impressive victory to pave the way for the succession of Himanta Biswa Sarma, the current CM of the state.
There have been several reasons to replace the four CMs, but Rupani’s departure had been making the rounds in recent months, mainly after the second Covid wave hit the state hard and questions were raised about the government’s management of the crisis. Sources said it was speculated that it had been understood late last year that Rupani would be replaced as the party would go to state polls in December 2022, under the leadership of the new chief minister.
The exact chronology was not known and it seems likely that the replacement will probably be from the Patidar community, a decisive voting bank, which has had a few stars with the state leadership of the BJP. Senior party leaders, including General Secretary (organization) BL Santhosh, Union Minister and Head of State Bhupendra Yadav, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, and Fisheries Minister Vijay Rupala are in the state capital, where there is likely to be a smooth transition amid the possibility of a Patidar leader replacing Rupani.
Party sources claimed that the change of leadership is being considered under the supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat had to resign after the central leadership received comments about his government’s “poor” performance and also some controversial decisions such as the state government’s proposed acquisition of temple managements. It was said that an RSS section and seer groups were unhappy and had threatened to launch agitations against the government.
The central leadership had failed to contain dissent in its Karnataka unit over Yeddyurappa, which he had to leave permanently after Basavaraj Bommai took over as CM.