The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday declared Vijay Rupani the new president of the party's Gujarat unit, reported Economic Times. The leader from Rajkot is a Cabinet minister in charge of the water resources ministry, transport ministry, and labour and employment ministry. Rupani will resign from the cabinet to take up his new job after the state budget session starts on February 22. Rupani, who was unanimously elected for the post, is from Saurashtra, where the BJP suffered a huge loss in the local body elections in December 2015. The state will have Assembly elections in 2017.

Party sources believe that Rupani, a Patel leader, will help the state government end the agitation launched by the Patidar community demanding reservation under Other Backward Classes. The BJP leader, who started out as a student activist, is believed to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. The post has been empty since Amit Shah became the national president of the party. Shah and the Patel reportedly could not reach a consensus on a name till now.