Two days after publicly announcing that she had asked the Bhartiya Janata Party leadership to find a replacement, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today submitted her resignation to Governor O P Kohli.
The development comes after the BJP Parliamentary Board accepted her resignation.
Patel, who was in the midst of several challenges, announced her decision on Facebook to step down on Monday, saying it was time for new leadership to take over as she was soon going to turn 75.
"For some time there has been a tradition in the party that those who attain the age of 75, voluntarily retires from the post. I will attain the age of 75 in November," the state's first woman chief minister, who succeeded Narendra Modi on May 22, 2014, said in a Facebook post.
Her resignation came amid the ongoing protests by Dalits in the state against brutal thrashing of youths from the community in Una of Gir Somnath district last month by cow protection vigilante groups.
This came a few months after the violent protests by Patidars, who were demanding reservation in education and jobs.
The party's parliamentary board met in New Delhi today and accepted her resignation.
State party in-charge Dinesh Sharma said BJP president Amit Shah will arrive here tomorrow and start the process of consultation on who will be the new chief minister.
"Observers appointed by the BJP's parliamentary board-- Nitin Gadkari and Saroj Pandey -- will be called. They and Amit Shah will take a final decision on who will be the chief minister. State BJP legislature party meeting will be called and the name will be announced in it," Sharma said on the process of selecting new chief minister.
He refused to give any names of contenders for the post and only said, "A party worker will be chosen as the next chief minister."
However, the names doing the rounds as potential successor to Patel include the 'number two' in the Cabinet and state Health Minister Nitin Patel, state BJP chief Vijay Rupani, Union minister Purshottam Rupala and Assembly Speaker Ganpat Vasava, who is a tribal leader.
Meanwhile, advertisements today appeared in local newspapers in which Anandiben Patel listed various decisions taken by her during the last two years to take the state's development march forward.
