New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah today said that the party’s parliamentary board will decide on the replacement for Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who has offered to resign.

Soon after Patel went public with her offer to quit, Shah said she wanted her replacement to get adequate time to prepare for Vibrant Gujarat summit to be held in January 2017 and the assembly polls later next year.

He said Patel had twice offered to resign and also broached the issue in the party’s National Executive meet in June and wrote to him again today morning.

Referring to reasons, including that she will turn 75 in November, cited by her to quit, he said she has set a “good” precedent.

“She has requested the party to relieve her of the post.

I will place the letter she has written to me before the Parliamentary Board and it will take a decision,” Shah told PTI.

“She has said that if a new person has to be brought in, then he should get time. Gujarat elections have to take place and there is also Vibrant Gujarat summit, which has been a long tradition, to be held in January. She said if Vibrant Gujarat has to happen in January, then new person should get the opportunity now,” he said.

Asked about the replacement for Patel, he said the parliamentary board will decide on the new chief minister.

The BJP chief also lauded Patel for carrying on the state’s developmental journey started “under” Narendra Modi, whom she had replaced in May 2014 after he led the party to victory in the Lok Sabha polls, saying she did a “successful” job.

“Gujarat has seen all round development under her,” Shah said.

The over two-year-long tenure of Patel, seen as a Modi pick, had witnessed two major social unrests; the first by the Patels for quota and the second, which is still continuing, by Dalits after some of them were brutalised by members of a cow vigilante group.

A dent in the support of Patels, a socially and economically empowered community which has thrown its weight behind the saffron camp for the last many elections, could spell trouble for the party and many believe that a new person at the helm can win them back to its fold.

PTI