Vijay Ramniklal Rupani (2 August 1956 – 12 June 2025) was an Indian politician who served as the

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 2016 to 2021. He was a representative in the

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 ...

for the Rajkot West constituency from the

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 died in the

Air India Flight 171 Air India Flight 171 was a regularly scheduled international Air India flight from Ahmedabad Airport to London Gatwick Airport. On 12 June 2025, at 13:38 IST, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating the flight crashed shortly after tak ...

aviation accident.

Early life and student politics

Vijay Rupani was born on 2 August 1956, in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

Rangoon Division Yangon Region (, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in central Myanmar, the region is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, and Ayeyarwady ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

, to a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

Sthanakwasi Jain Bania family. He was the seventh and youngest son of the couple. In 1960, his family moved to

Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, India, due to political instability in Burma. His father, Rasiklal Rupani, who had been a grain merchant in Burma, became a trader of

ball bearings A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

in Rajkot. Vijay Rupani graduated with a BA from Dharmendrasinhji Arts College and an

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Saurashtra University Saurashtra University is a conventional state university located in Rajkot, Gujarat, India. This university was established by ''The Saurashtra University Act'' of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly in the year 1965. History Saurashtra Universi ...

. Active in student politics, Rupani joined the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

(RSS), a

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...

organisation, and the

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a student organization in India, registered as a Non-governmental organization (NGO) in 1949. It's a significant student union with over 5 million members, making it one of the largest student or ...

(ABVP), a student body affiliated with the RSS. In 1971, Rupani joined the

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

(BJS or JS; often known as the Jan Sangh), a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

political party that served as the political arm of the RSS and was the precursor to the BJP.

Political career

Rupani participated in the

Navnirman Andolan ''Navnirman Andolan'' () was a socio-political movement in 1974 in Gujarat by students and middle-class people against economic crisis and corruption in public life. The movement focused on different issues during its duration. It had broadly t ...

, a socio-political movement against economic crisis and corruption in the leadup to the Emergency. During the Emergency, he was imprisoned for 11 months and held at jails in

Bhuj Bhuj () is a city and the headquarters of Kutch district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Etymology According to legend, Kutch (Kachchh) was ruled by the Nāga chieftains in the past. Sagai, a queen of Sheshapattana, who was married to King B ...

and

Bhavnagar Bhavnagar is a city and the headquarters of Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was founded in 1723 by Bhavsinhji Gohil. It was the capital of Bhavnagar State, which was a princely state before it was merged into the Dominion ...

. Having been a member of the

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...

and the

Jan Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

, Rupani was affiliated with the

BJP 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

since its establishment in 1980. He was elected to the

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 bod ...

in 1987, and served as the mayor of Rajkot from 1996 to 1997. In 2006, Rupani was made general secretary of BJP's Gujarat state unit, before he was elected as a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012, representing Gujarat. He served as a member of the

from 2014 to 2022, representing Rajkot West constituency. He was inducted as a 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 20th and current governor of Uttar Pradesh since 2019. She also served as the 17th governor of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 to 2021 and as Governor of Chha ...

in November 2014 and was assigned the state portfolios of Transport, Water Supply, as well as Labour and Employment. On 19 February 2016, Rupani became the BJP's president in Gujarat, succeeding R. C. Faldu. He held the position until August 2016.

Chief Minister of Gujarat (2016–2021)

On 7 August 2016, Rupani was appointed

by the leadership of the BJP, following the resignation of

. Rupani led the BJP in the

2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election The 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on 9 December 2017 and 14 December 2017 in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Gujarat to elect the Member of Legislative Assembly (India), Members of Legislat ...

, in which the party retained power and he continued as chief minister. The BJP's election campaign was characterised by prominent usage of

themes and

Islamophobic Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...

rhetoric. In March 2021, ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' included Rupani in its list of the 100 most powerful people in India. Rupani faced intense criticism for his mishandling of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with Gujarat emerging as one of India's most severely affected states. In April 2021, the

Gujarat High Court The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the ''Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960'' after the state of Gujarat split from Bombay State. The seat of the court is Ahmedabad. Establ ...

remarked that his government's response to the crisis was "not satisfactory and not transparent." On 11 September 2021, Rupani resigned from the post of chief minister. He was succeeded by Bhupendra Patel, who subsequently led the BJP to a landslide victory in the

2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in Elections in Gujarat, Gujarat from 2022 elections in India, 1 to 5 December 2022 in two phases, to elect List of constituencies of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, 182 members of 15th Gujarat Assembl ...

. Rupani was often characterised by political commentators as a low-profile and obedient figure, with some describing his tenure as that of a 'proxy' or '

rubber-stamp A rubber stamp is an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved, or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber. Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to a rubber ...

' chief minister. His administration largely continued the policies and governance style of preceding BJP-led governments in the state.

Alleged stock manipulation

Between January and June 2011, 22 entities, including Vijay Rupani HUF, bought and sold shares of Sarang Chemicals in an alleged pump-and-dump scam. On 27 October 2017, the

Securities and Exchange Board of India The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the Regulatory agency, regulatory body for securities and commodity market in India under the administrative domain of Ministry of Finance (India), Ministry of Finance within the Government ...

(SEBI) imposed penalties on all 22 entities on the charges of artificial volume creation,

market manipulation In economics and finance, market manipulation occurs when someone intentionally alters the supply or demand of a security to influence its price. This can involve spreading misleading information, executing misleading trades, or manipulating ...

, and "getting an unlawful or unfair gain," in violation of PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market). Following an investigation, SEBI discovered that the group had bought 2,76,97,860 shares at 32.97% of the company's market value before selling 7,24,08,293 shares at 86.18% of the company's market value. SEBI levied fines of 6.9

crores Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the Indian ...

across all entities, with Rupani HUF being asked to pay 15

lakhs A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ...

within 45 days of the order. SEBI noted that the order was ex parte as the entities involved did not respond to the show-cause notice within the stipulated time. Rupani denied any wrongdoing. In his defence, his office alleged that the HUF had purchased shares worth 63,000 in 2009 and sold them for 35,000 in 2011, thus incurring a loss, not a profit. On 8 November 2017, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) set aside the SEBI order, noting that it had been issued without giving a hearing to those involved. No new public hearing or ruling has been announced, effectively closing the case.

Personal life

Vijay Rupani was married to Anjali Rupani, a member of the

BJP Mahila Morcha BJP Mahila Morcha, or simply Mahila Morcha ( IPA: Mahilā Mōrcā, ), is the women's wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India. Vanathi Srinivasan, former Tamil Nadu BJP Unit Vice president and current Member of the Tamil Nadu Legis ...

, the women's wing of the party. The couple had two children, a son named Rishabh and a daughter named Radhika. They had previously lost their youngest son, Pujit, in a car accident. In his memory, the family founded the Shri Pujit Rupani Memorial Trust, a

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

which works for the poor. A former

stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...

, Rupani once served as the chairman of the Saurashtra-Kutch Stock Exchange.

Death

On 12 June 2025, Rupani boarded

, which was bound for

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport , also known as London Gatwick Airport (), is the Airports of London, secondary international airport serving London, West Sussex and Surrey. It is located near Crawley in West Sussex, south of Central London. In 2024, Gatwic ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. According to a close relative, he was travelling to London to visit his daughter and to accompany his wife on the return journey. Shortly after take-off from

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport Ahmedabad Airport, officially Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport , is an international airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It is named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister of India. The airport is the b ...

, the aircraft crashed into the hostel block of B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, he died along with all but one of the 242 passengers and crew, as well as at-least 38 individuals on the ground. Rupani’s body was confirmed through forensic analysis of his dental records. He was the second chief minister of Gujarat to die in a plane crash, following

Balwantrai Mehta Balwantrai Gopalji Mehta ( – ) was an Indian politician who served as the second Chief Minister of Gujarat, India. He participated in the Indian independence movement. After the independence of India, he was elected to the Lok Sabha, the low ...

References

External links

*
Profile
on the official website Rajya Sabha (archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rupani, Vijay 1956 births 2025 deaths Chief ministers of Gujarat Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat Indian people imprisoned during the Emergency (India) State cabinet ministers of Gujarat Mayors of places in Gujarat Ahmedabad municipal councillors Gujarat MLAs 2012–2017 Gujarat MLAs 2017–2022 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members People from Rajkot People from Yangon Gujarati people 21st-century Indian Jains Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2025 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in India