OBC face Jagdish Vishwakarma elevated as Gujarat BJP president

Vishwakarma (52) has succeeded Union Jal Shakti Minister and Lok Sabha MP from Navsari, CR Paatil, whose three-year tenure ended in July 2023, and he continued to hold the post.

The three-time MLA from the Nikol seat of Ahmedabad was the only candidate to file nomination papers for the post on Friday.

Vishwakarma is currently serving as the Minister of State for co-operation, salt industries, MSME, cottage, khadi and rural industries.

He had earlier served as the president of the saffron party’s Ahmedabad city unit.

Before the function, Vishwakarma took out a rally with a large number of party workers from his residence in Ahmedabad’s Thakkarbapanagar.

He expressed gratitude to the party’s top leadership, which gave him the responsibility to serve as president of the Gujarat BJP.

“The BJP’s vision for the country, its cultural nationalist commitment, is made up of the best citizens, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, and a long line of hardworking and dedicated workers,” the new president said.

He said, “The BJP, the world’s largest party, is synonymous with development, trust, new ideas, national victory, and a self-reliant India. Our effort for a developed Gujarat and a strong BJP must be cohesive, with the cooperation of all workers, to serve the people as Team Gujarat BJP.” The trust that the people of Gujarat have placed in the BJP over the past 25 years has increased this responsibility, and all BJP workers must live up to these expectations, Vishwakarma.

Speaking on the occasion, Paatil said that under his leadership, the BJP contested the 2022 assembly election with confidence to win 182 seats, and managed to win 156 seats, and in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the party won 25 out of 26 seats.

On both occasions, the party got a lead of over one crore votes as against over three lakh-vote lead of the opposition parties, he said.

“It may have been due to the mistakes of booth-level workers and the shortcomings in my leadership as a party president, which led to a loss of 26 seats (in the 2022 assembly election). But we still managed to snatch more than 65 seats from the Congress. We won six seats for the first time in the 2022 election,” he said.

“We are sad about not managing to win the remaining three seats that we never won before, but we are confident of winning all 182 seats in the coming election,” he said.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said that PM Modi has stressed the importance of technology, and its use is crucial for progress.

“Our (outgoing) president, CR Paatil, has utilised technology effectively in the BJP. Jagdish Vishwakarma is also a techno-savvy individual and will use it effectively to help us reach our goals,” he said.

“Whether it’s the government or the organisation, everyone in the BJP has fulfilled whatever responsibility they have been given. Hence, the BJP has become a huge tree because of the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and JP Nadda have performed their duties,” he said.

At the function, Union Minister Yadav also declared the names of 39 national council members of the BJP who were elected unopposed.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Paatil, CM Patel, senior party leaders Vaju Vala, Parshottam Rupala, RC Faldu, etc, were among them.