AHMEDABAD: BJP leader and former Gujarat minister Mangubhai Patel on Tuesday said he will try his best to fulfil his new responsibility as the governor of Madhya Pradesh. Patel (77), a native of Navsari in south Gujarat and a well-known tribal leader of the BJP, was appointed as the governor of Madhya Pradesh by President Ram Nath Kovind.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel was holding the additional charge of MP since June last year, after the then MP governor Lalji Tandon took critically ill.
Tandon died in July last year. "I will try my best to fulfil my responsibility as a governor. The BJP is a party which believes in taking along all communities. I thank President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders for giving me this new responsibility," Patel told reporters at his residence in Navsari.
Patel, a six-term MLA, said he always believed in PM Modi's idea of "sabka sath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas". "I will continue to walk on the path shown by Modiji and I am ready to serve the people in my new role," said Patel, who had served as the minister of tribal welfare, forest and environment in the Gujarat BJP government.
Patel started his political career as a member of the Navsari municipality in 1982, and went on to win the Assembly elections from Navsari seat five times and once from Gandevi seat in 2012. He also served as the Gujarat Assembly's deputy speaker in 2013 when Modi was the chief minister of the state.