Vijaybhai Ramniklalbhai Rupani (born 2 August 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the 16th

Chief Minister of Gujarat The Chief Minister of Gujarat is the chief executive of the government of the Indian state of Gujarat. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. The chief minister's term ...

from 2016 to 2021 for two terms. He is a member of the

Gujarat Legislative Assembly Gujarat Legislative Assembly or Gujarat Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Gujarat, in the state capital Gandhinagar. Presently, 182 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from single-member c ...

, representing

Rajkot West Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat after Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, and is in the centre of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Rajkot is the 35th-largest metropolitan area in India, with a population of ...

. He is a member of

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

Early life

Vijay Rupani was born to Mayaben and Ramniklal Rupani, in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

to a

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

Bania family. He was the seventh and youngest son of the couple. His family moved to Rajkot in 1960 due to political instability in Burma. He studied Bachelor of Arts from Dharmendrasinhji Arts College and LLB from

Saurashtra University Saurashtra University is a university in Gujarat state in India. This university was established on 23 May 1967, in Rajkot city, and the administrative headquarters are at Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian sta ...

Career

Business career

Vijay Rupani is a partner in a trading firm Rasiklal & Sons, founded by his father. He had worked as a stock broker.

Political career

Vijay Rupani started his career as student activist associated with

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) () is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). History The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS a ...

(ABVP). He joined

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

(RSS) and subsequently joined Jan Sangh in 1971. He has been associated with

Bharatiya Janta Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

since its establishment. He was imprisoned for 11 months and was sent to the jails in

Bhuj Bhuj () is a Municipality and District Headquarters of Kutch District in the state of Gujarat, India. Etymology According to legend, Kutch was ruled by the Nāga chieftains in the past. Sagai, a queen of Sheshapattana, who was married to Kin ...

and

Bhavnagar Bhavnagar is a city in the Bhavnagar district of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, a state of India. It was founded in 1723 by Bhavsinhji Takhtasinhji Gohil (1703–1764). It was the capital of Bhavnagar State, which was a princely state ...

during the

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

in 1976. He was a ''Pracharak'' of RSS from 1978 to 1981. He was elected as a corporator of

Rajkot Municipal Corporation Rajkot Municipal Corporation is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city of Rajkot in Gujarat state of India. The organization is known, in short, as RMC. It was established in 1973. This civic administrative bo ...

(RMC) in 1987 and became the chairman of drainage committee. He became the chairman of standing committee of RMC from 1988 to 1996. He was again elected to RMC in 1995. He served as the mayor of Rajkot from 1996 to 1997. He became BJP's Gujarat unit general secretary in 1998 and served as the chairman of manifesto committee during chief ministership of

Keshubhai Patel Keshubhai Patel (24 July 192829 October 2020) was an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1995 and from 1998 to 2001. He was a six-time member of Gujarat Legislative Assembly. He was a member of RSS since 1940s, of Bharatiya ...

. He was appointed a chairman of

Gujarat Tourism The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat, operating under the brand of ''Gujarat Tourism'', is a government undertaking formed in 1978 to promote tourism in the Indian state of Gujarat and guide tourists visiting Gujarat. Hill stations * Wilson Hills * ...

in 2006. He was a member of

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from 2006 to 2012. He served as BJP's Gujarat unit general secretary four times and chairman of the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board in 2013 during the chief ministership of

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. In August 2014, when

Vajubhai Vala Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala (born 23 January 1937) is an Indian statesman who was the 18th Governor of Karnataka from 1 September 2014 to 6 July 2021. He is also the longest serving Governor for Karnataka after Khurshed Alam Khan. Vajubhai served a ...

, the incumbent speaker of

, resigned as the MLA from Rajkot West, Vijay Rupani was nominated by the BJP to contest his vacant seat. He won the bypoll on 19 October 2014 by a huge margin. He was inducted as minister in the first cabinet expansion by Chief Minister

Anandiben Patel Anandiben Mafatbhai Patel (born 21 November 1941) is an Indian politician serving as the current Governor of Uttar Pradesh. She also served as Governor of Madhya Pradesh and Governor of Chhattisgarh. She has served as the first female Chie ...

in November 2014 and held the ministry of transport, water supply, labor and employment. On 19 February 2016, Rupani became the state BJP president, replacing R. C. Faldu. He was the BJP state president from February 2016 to August 2016.

Chief Minister (2016–2021)

He succeeded

and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on 7 August 2016. In the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, he retained Rajkot West constituency defeating the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

candidate Indranil Rajyaguru. He was unanimously elected as the leader of legislature party on 22 December 2017 and continued as the Chief Minister of Gujarat with

Nitin Patel Nitinbhai Ratilalbhai Patel (born 22 June 1956) is an Indian politician from Gujarat. He served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat from 5 August 2016 to 11 September 2021. He was formerly the Minister for Water Supply, Water Resources (e ...

as the Deputy Chief Minister. On 11 September 2021, he resigned from the post of Chief Minister. He was succeeded by Bhupendra Patel.

Controversy

In 2011, Vijay Rupani HUF sold shares worth about 35000 ($500) in Sarang Chemicals in a single transaction which were purchased in 2009 at about 63000, worth $1000, making a loss. The

SEBI The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulatory body for securities and commodity market in India under the ownership of Ministry of Finance within the Government of India. It was established on 12 April 1988 as an executive ...

, the regulator, had charged 22 entities, including Vijay Rupani relative, for "manipulative trades" by

pump and dump Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operat ...

. In November 2017, the SEBI issued

ex parte In law, ''ex parte'' () is a Latin term meaning literally "from/out of the party/faction of" (name of party/faction, often omitted), thus signifying "on behalf of (name)". An ''ex parte'' decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all ...

order imposing a penalty of 150000 or $3000 to Vijay Rupani HUF for creating misleading appearance in the stocks. Vijay Rupani HUF pleaded that the penalty was imposed without giving opportunity to be heard. The SEBI said that the entity had failed to file reply to their

show cause notice An order to show cause is a type of court order that requires one or more of the parties to a case to justify, explain, or prove something to the court. Courts commonly use orders to show cause when the judge needs more information before deciding ...

in time. Later the Securities Appellate Tribunal set aside the penalty order and asked the SEBI to issue fresh order and hear all the entities.

Personal life

Vijay Rupani is married to Anjali, who is also a member of the BJP women's wing. The couple have a son, Rushabh, who is an engineering graduate, as well as a daughter, Radhika, who is married. The couple lost their youngest son Pujit in an accident and have started the Pujit Rupani Memorial Trust for charity.

References

External links

Official website

Profile on Rajya Sabha website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rupani, Vijay Chief Ministers of Gujarat Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat Living people 1956 births Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India) State cabinet ministers of Gujarat Mayors of places in Gujarat Ahmedabad municipal councillors People from Rajkot Gujarat MLAs 2012–2017 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members People from Yangon Gujarat MLAs 2017–2022 Gujarati people 21st-century Indian Jains