His Excellency Mangubhai: Mangubhai Patel’s journey from Ratna artist to Governor was spotless, tears of joy spilled as soon as the post was announced

Mangubhai Patel became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

One of the early workers of Navsari district BJP and former Forest Minister Mangubhai Patel has been made the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Due to this there is a wave of happiness in Navsari city of Gujarat including Mangubhai’s family. Mangubhai hails from a simple family and was a gem artist in his youth. During this time he joined the BJP and remained unblemished throughout his long political career of 27 years.

Mangubhai Patel contested the MLA election in 1990 and won.

Lost the first election of life, then did not look back
Mangubhai studied only till 8th standard. After this, to help the family financially, he left his studies and started working as a gem artist. After this he joined the BJP party and he contested the councilor’s election. Although, he lost the election, but even after that he remained fully active in politics.

After this he got on BJP ticket.
Mangubhai Patel, who started his political journey as a member of Navsari Municipality, contested the MLA election in 1990 and won. After this he was elected MLA from 1995, 1995 to 1997, 1998 to 2002, 2002 to 2007, 2002 to 2012 and 2012 to 2017. He was MLA from Navsari for 5 times and from Ganadevi once.

He was the Minister of Forest and Environment in the Narendra Modi government from 2002 to 2012.

BJP did not give ticket in 2017 due to old age
Mangubhai Patel was also a minister of state from 1998 to 2002 during the Keshubhai government. After this, from 2002 to 2012, he was the Minister of Forest and Environment in the Narendra Modi government. After being the Minister of Forest and Environment for 10 consecutive years, he was made the Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly in 2013. After this, he was made a cabinet minister in the government of Anandi Behan Patel.

However, when Rupani became the chief minister in 2016, he was dropped from the cabinet. At the same time, he was not even given a ticket in the 2017 assembly elections. While he has been a minister for two consecutive terms i.e. for 10 years during the tenure of Modi’s Chief Minister. He was not given ticket by BJP in 2017 due to his age. Since then he was staying at his house in Navsari.

Mangubhai served as a minister in the state government for 18 years, first as a minister of state and then as a cabinet minister. Gujarat will always remember his career, especially as a tribal leader and former Forest Minister of Gujarat.

Launched important schemes as Forest Minister
Mangubhai did commendable work as Forest Minister for Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana and eradication of sickle cell-anemia. The Vanbandhu scheme, which proved to be an important scheme for the upliftment of tribals in the Gujarat model, was the brainchild of Mangubhai. It has proved to be a beneficial scheme for the tribals. Apart from this, he played an important role in removing anemia.