C R Patil's "killer instinct" reign is coming to an end, and the BJP will select a new Gujarat chief.

A unexpected candidate for the position was Chandrakant Raghunath Patil, who is expected to leave his position as Gujarat BJP president after more than five years of success, including more than two years of extension. The first "non-Gujarati" to occupy the position was Patil, or CR as he is more widely known, who was born in Jalgaon, Maharashtra.Given Patil's lengthy tenure in Gujarat, where the former police constable rose through the ranks, and the influence of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi in the state where the BJP has risen steadily, it was not surprising that few questions were raised. Patil was also viewed as Modi's choice.While the BJP was still getting over the 2017 Assembly elections, in which the Patidar movement had whittled the party down to 99 seats in the 182-member House and a slim majority, the 70-year-old assumed power in July 2020. During the first Covid wave, when anti-government feeling was at its peak, Patil also took charge.By-elections were held in Gujarat in November 2020, months after he was appointed, to fill eight Assembly seats that Congress MLAs had left for the BJP. All were won by the BJP. Before the 2022 Assembly elections, Patil would go on to oversee the startling decision to completely restructure the Gujarat Cabinet, starting at the top with the late Vijay Rupani taking over as Chief Minister, replacing numerous incumbent MLAs with fresh candidates, and enforcing age and tenure restrictions on ticket distribution in local body elections.Subsequent surveys demonstrated Patil's skill in preventing the adjustments from backfiring.

The local body elections, which included all six municipal corporations, were decisively won by the BJP in March 2021. The party not only overran Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, a stronghold of the Congress party, but won 41 of the 44 wards in October 2021. The 2022 Assembly elections followed, which were viewed as a litmus test to see if the BJP had moved past the 2017 results and if its reform of its state unit would help it avoid anti-incumbency. By winning the Assembly elections with the greatest majority in Gujarat's history (156, or 85% of the Assembly members), the BJP disproved critics on both fronts.The BJP decided to support Patil for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and granted him an extension when his three-year term ended in July 2023. Despite losses in other regions of the nation, Patil delivered once more, as the BJP won 25 of Gujarat's 26 Lok Sabha seats.