Amit Shah in Gujarat amid speculation over new CM

Anandiben Patel announced her decision on Facebook to step down on Monday

BJP President Amit Shah landed in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning to oversee the process of finding a successor to Anandiben Patel, who has formally put in her papers as the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Shah drove straight to his residence from the airport and was locked in a meeting with BJP Joint Secretary (organisation) V Satish and General Secretary in charge of Gujarat Dinesh Sharma.

Though the BJP leadership reiterated in Delhi all through Wednesday that Amit Shah would not be the next chief minister since his services were needed for the crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, speculation back home still did not rule him out.

"M Venkaiah Naidu maintained this after the parliamentary board meeting in Delhi on Wednesday when he said the elected legislators in Gujarat will decide their leader on Friday with him only overseeing the meeting.

"If Shah succeeds Patel, it can be easily said later that he was the choice of the MLAs though the party needed him in Uttar Pradesh," a senior leader here said.

"Why otherwise are they delaying every decision by a day and leaving everything to the legislature party meeting all the way to Friday evening, which otherwise is generally a formality," he wondered.

Amit Shah is a legislator from the Naranpura consituency.