Suresh Mehta (born 5 August 1936) is an Indian politician and former

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 1995 to 1996.

Biography

Early life

Suresh Mehta was born on 5 August 1936 at

Mandvi Mandvi is a Beach town with municipality in the Kutch district in the States and territories of India, Indian state of Gujarat. It was once a major port of the region and summer retreat for Maharao (king) of the Cutch State. The old city was enc ...

Cutch State Cutch, also spelled Kutch or Kachchh and also historically known as the Kingdom of Kutch, was a kingdom in the Kutch region from 1147 to 1819 and a princely state under British rule from 1819 to 1947. Its territories covered the present day K ...

(now in Kachchh District, Gujarat, India).

Political career

He was a member of the

Bharatiya Janata 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 Modi ...

(BJP). He was elected to

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the 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 fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

Vidhan Sabha from

in Kachchh area in 1975 (w Jana Sangh), 1985, 1990, 1995, 1998. He lost the seat in 2002 elections. He served as the cabinet minister when

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 ...

formed the government in the 1995 assembly elections. Keshubhai Patel resigned in October 1995 following revolt of his colleague

Shankersinh Vaghela Shankersinh Laxmansinhji Vaghela (born 21 July 1940) is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Gujarat. He was the Leader of Opposition in 13th Gujarat Legislative Assembly. Vagela started his political career with the Jana Sangh, w ...

and consequently, Mehta was sworn in as the Chief Minister in October 1995 and he served till September 1996. However, BJP was split as the

Rashtriya Janata Party Rashtriya Janata Party was a political party in Gujarat, India. It was a splinter group of Bharatiya Janata Party. This group was led by Shankersinh Vaghela and Dilip Parikh. It was later dissolved and its leaders joined the Indian National Congre ...

which was formed by Vaghela. Mehta resigned from post of the CM and the

President's rule In India, President's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state. Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional ...

was imposed. He again served as the industry cabinet minister under Patel when the BJP returned to the power in the 1998 assembly elections. Patel resigned in 2001 following allegations of mismanagement in relief works during the aftermath of the

2001 Bhuj earthquake The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, also known as the Bhuj earthquake, occurred on 26 January, India's 52nd Republic Day, at . The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District of Gujara ...

and a loss of BJP seats in

by-elections A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

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 ...

succeeded Patel under whom Mehta had reservations to serve as the cabinet minister but he served until 2002. He opposed leadership of

and quit BJP on 8 December 2007, just before the 2007 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election. Later he joined the

Gujarat Parivartan Party Gujarat Parivartan Party was a political party from Gujarat, India. It was founded by Keshubhai Patel in August 2012. It performed poorly in 2012 assembly elections. It was expanded with the merging of the Mahagujarat Janata Party. Later it was me ...

(GPP) founded by the former chief minister

in 2012. He opposed the GPP's merger with the BJP in February 2014 and left the party.

References

External links

Chief Ministers of Gujarat Living people Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party Leaders of the Opposition in Gujarat 1947 births Gujarat MLAs 1995–1998 Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat Gujarat Parivartan Party politicians People from Mandvi Politicians from Kutch district {{Gujarat-BJP-politician-stub