Dilip Ramanbhai Parikh (16 February 1937 – 25 October 2019) was an Indian politician and industrialist. He was the 13th

Chief Minister of Gujarat The chief minister of Gujarat is the head of government, chief executive of the government of the Indian state of Gujarat. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose Cabinet (government), council of ministers are Cabinet collective respons ...

from 28 October 1997 to 4 March 1998. Dilip Parekh is also the most recent non BJP Chief Minister of Gujarat as of now. As BJP has been ruling the state ever since.

Early life

Parikh was born in 1937 in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(now Mumbai). He received BA in Economics from

Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the edu ...

. He studied law as well. He had a plastic manufacturing business. He served as the President of Gujarat State Plastic Manufacturers' Association in 1973–74. In 1979, he led the association of plastic and rubber industries in the state. He served as the president of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the 1980s.

Political career

In 1990, Parikh entered politics and served as the Vice President of the State Committee 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP). He contested and won 1990 and 1995 Gujarat legislative assembly elections from Dhandhuka constituency as a candidate of BJP. BJP won majority in 1995 election and formed government headed by Chief Minister

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

. Patel resigned in October 1995 following revolt of his colleague Shankersinh Vaghela and consequently, Suresh Mehta was sworn in as the Chief Minister in October 1995 and he served until September 1996. Parikh was the minister of industries in the cabinet headed by Mehta. In 1996, when Vaghela split the BJP and formed the

Rashtriya Janata Party Rashtriya Janmat Party is a political party in Prayagraj U P, India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List o ...

, he joined RJP which formed the minority government with support of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC) and Vaghela became the Chief Minister on 23 October 1996. A year later INC threatened to withdraw its support on 20 October 1997. A week later the compromise was reached as a change of Chief Minister. Vaghela stepped down and Parikh was sworn in as a Chief Minister by governor

Krishna Pal Singh Krishnapal Singh (10 January 1922 – 27 September 1999) was an Indian activist, politician and a former Governor of Gujarat from Shahdol in Baghelkhand. His career began in the 1940s and ended in the 1990s. Early life In high school, he organi ...

in 1997. In 182 members

Gujarat Legislative Assembly The 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 ...

, there were only 46 RJP members while there were 44 INC, 76 BJP and 15 Independents members. Thus minority government by outside support of the INC resulted in the instability. He submitted his resignation to Gujarat Governor Krishna Pal Singh and called for the fresh assembly election on 5 January 1998 but continued as a caretaker Chief Minister till 4 March 1998. He lost to the BJP candidate Bharat Pandya in

Dhandhuka Dhandhuka is a city and a municipality in the Ahmedabad district in the state of Gujarat, India. Moreover, it is a part of the Bhal region. History In the twelfth century, Dhandhuka became famous as the birthplace of the great Jain teacher He ...

by a margin of over 15000 votes in 1998 Gujarat legislative assembly election while RJP won only four seats. BJP regained power with 117 seats out of 182 seats assembly. He later joined INC and afterwards retired from the politics. He died on 25 October 2019 in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

after a surgery following a fall a few days previous. His body was cremated at

Thaltej Thaltej is a census town and a suburb in Ahmedabad district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The town comes under Ward No:8, North West Zone of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the civic body that governs the City of Ahmedabad. History The vil ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parikh, Dilip Chief ministers of Gujarat 1937 births 2019 deaths Gujarat MLAs 1995–1998 Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat Rashtriya Janata Party politicians Indian industrialists Elphinstone College alumni Politicians from Ahmedabad Politicians from Mumbai Gujarat MLAs 1990–1995 Indian National Congress politicians from Gujarat