THE BURDEN ON BHUPENDRA

The day Bhupendra Patel and his cabinet took oath, there were relaxed smiles all around. Gujarat’s electorate had upturned the very notion of anti-incumbency with a whopping mandate for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.

- Jumana Shah

But as the euphoria of the election ebbs away, people reckon with the reality of the ‘same’ new government. To beat back any creeping sense of stasis, the state leadership has to maintain the tempo of 2022 till 2024, actively working on improving the economy, creating jobs and dealing with a bunch of contentious issues like EWS quota implementation and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The BJP has won all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat since 2014, its vote share increasing every time. Ensuring the trend continues rests squarely on Patel and his team now.

Gujarat’s quest for a dynamic CM has been on since Modi left in 2014. Outsize shoes to fill, without doubt. But three faces in seven years is a sorry record even then—it has sent out a message of instability, as industry sources in Gujarat indicate. Business leaders admired Modi for the translation of political will into administrative action. In the past few years, that has been missing. “Anandiben Patel was removed unceremoniously amid the Patidar stir. Vijay Rupani lacked mass charisma, and his control over the administration was poor. We are hoping Bhupendrabhai will work,” says an industry leader.