Vijay Rupani

Vijay Rupani Biography

Vijay Rupani is an Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party, who currently serves as the chief minister of Gujarat. He swore as the chief minister of Gujarat on 7 August 2016, and as an MLA represents Rajkot West. Vijay Rupani is partner in a trading firm Rasiklal & Sons, started by his father. He also worked as a stock broker during his early days. Vijay has been associated with Bharatiya Janta Party since its establishment.

Vijay Ramniklal Rupani is born on 2 August 1956. Rangoon of Myanmar is his birth place. He was the seventh and youngest son of the couple. His family moved to Rajkot in 1960 due to political instability in Burma. Vijay completed graduation and also did LLB from Saurashtra University. Rupani started his career as student activist associated with ABVP during his academic years. He was a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and subsequently joined Jan Sangh in 1971. Thus he has been associated with Bharatiya Janta Party since its establishment. In 1976 during the infamous Emergency period, he was jailed for 11 months.

He became an RSS Pracharak in the late 1970s, and got elected to Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) in 1987. He served as the chairman of standing committee of RMC from 1988 to 1996 and Mayor of Rajkot from 1996 to 1997. Fully associated with state politics over a decade, he was a member of Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012. While Narendra Modi served as the chief minister of Gujarat, he served as BJP's Gujarat unit general secretary 4 times and also chairman of the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board in 2013.

He was inducted as minister in the first cabinet expansion by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in November 2014. He was given the responsibilities of the portfolios, transport, water supply, labor and employment. He succeeded Anandiben Patel and sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on 7 August 2016.

In the Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, 2017, he retained Rajkot West constituency defeating the Indian National Congress candidate Indranil Rajyaguru. He was unanimously elected as the leader of legislature party on 22 December 2017 and is continued as the Chief Minister of Gujarat with Nitin Patel as the Deputy Chief Minister.

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Updated: December 30, 2017