Sarbanand Sonowal, under whom the party had contested the Assam assembly elections, resigned even after an impressive victory to pave the way for the succession of Himanta Biswa Sarma, the incumbent CM of the state.
There have been varied reasons for the replacement of the four CMs but the exit of Rupani had been doing the rounds in the past few months mainly after the second Covid wave hit the state hard and questions were raised about the government’s handling of the crisis. Sources said it was speculated that an understanding had been reached late last year that Rupani will be replaced as party will go into state polls in December 2022, under the new chief minister.
The exact timeline was not known and it seems likely that the replacement would most likely be from the Patidar community, a decisive vote bank, that has had a few grouses with the state BJP leadership. Senior party leaders including general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, union minister and state in charge Bhupendra Yadav, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and minister of fisheries Vijay Rupala are in the state capital where a smooth transition is likely amid possibility of a Patidar leader replacing Rupani.
Party sources maintained that the change of leadership is being considered under supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat had to resign after the central leadership was getting feedback about “lacklustre” performance of his government and also some controversial decisions like proposed take-over of temple managements by the state government. A section of RSS and groups of seers were said to be unhappy and had threatened to launch agitation against the government.
The central leadership had failed to contain dissensions in its Karnataka unit over Yeddyurappa, who had to quit finally after which Basavaraj Bommai took over as the CM.