Anandiben Patel Quits as Gujarat CM: What Went Wrong For Her

Gandhinagar: Over the last 26 months she was chief minister of Gujarat, Anandiben Patel faced a lot opposition to her leadership, both from within and outside.

Her government struggled through one crisis after the other - first the vociferous Patel quota stir, then humiliating losses for the BJP in district and taluk panchayat polls last year, and finally the recent protests over the flogging of Dalit youths by cow vigilantes.

Last July, in a desperate move to appease the Patel community, she announced a new reservation policy in government jobs and colleges for the economically backward among the upper castes.

This change in stance by the government, which till then was firm on not extending any benefits of quota to the powerful Patidar community, failed to woo the agitating Patels who called it “a lollypop” and demanded community-specific quota.

These, in short, are what went wrong for Anandiben Patel:

1) Heavy losses for BJP in zilla and taluk panchayat polls held in December 2015. Though BJP retained all the six municipal corporations (Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar) and won 40 of the 56 municipalities, the Congress, which has been out of power in the state for two decades, won 22 of the 31 district panchayats and over 150 taluk panchayats.

2) Corruption charges. The opposition Congress accused her of giving away 250 acres of land near Gir lion sanctuary for Rs.60,000 per acre when she was revenue minister in the Modi government. The current market value of the land is Rs. 50 lakh per acre.

3) She faced charges of nepotism and interference by her children. Some even alleged that her children were running a parallel administration.

4) There was a huge infighting in the party. The gap between the government and party widened during her regime.

5) Not-so-cordial relationship with bureaucracy. As CM, Modi had a firm grip over bureaucracy, but Anandiben failed to control them and win their confidence.

6) She is turning 75 on November 1. Goes against PM Modi’s formula of 75 as the upper limit to be a minister or a chief minister.