Vijay Rupani, Gujarat Tourism,

Gujarat Prime Minister Vijay Rupani passed out on stage Sunday while addressing a demonstration in Vadodara ahead of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) elections.

While BJP leader and former city mayor Dr. Jigeesha Seth rushed to help Rupani and helped him regain consciousness, a medical team accompanied him from Vadodara to Ahmedabad UN Mehta Hospital.

When it collapsed, Rupani was in his third place in Vadodara’s Nizampura, having spoken at rallies in the Tarsali and Sangam areas of the city.

Sunil Solanki, General Secretary of BJP Vadodara, said: “The CM was visibly tired but had not complained of being ill when he arrived. We could feel that he was tired because he had been in a field blitzkrieg. We immediately had doctors attending him. He was in a conscious state when he left for Ahmedabad. You will go directly to UN Mehta Hospital, where you will undergo a detailed medical check-up. We cannot speculate on the cause of what happened. “

However, BJP state chairman CR Paatil told reporters that Rupani had had a fever for the past few days, but was campaigning despite requests for a break from party leaders.

Paatil told reporters: “He (Rupani) had a fever. We had asked him to skip the campaign, but he is such a committed leader that he continued to address the meetings. We wish him a speedy recovery. “

In his speeches in Tarsali and Sangam, Rupani spoke of the BJP’s “commitment to development”. Rupani started his campaign from Tarsali District 17, where the candidates were announced on February 5 and provoked a great rebellion within the neighborhood workers’ party.

Among the four people sent into District 17 is Shailesh Patil, a first-time candidate and relative of BJP MLA Sangita Patil from the Surat Limbayat Assembly.

During his speech, Rupani also spoke on the subject of “love jihad” and said that the state government was considering a law to curb cases of “forced interreligious marriages, involving conversions.”

“In the next session of the Assembly, the state cabinet will pass the law against love jihad. Those who indulge in coercion and religious conversion in the name of marriage and love cannot escape. There have been lawsuits and the state government is examining their need and importance. It is significant that Gujarat is the next state after Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh where the law against love jihad is being debated, ”said the CM.

Rupani also spoke about Gujarat’s strict Terrorism and Organized Crime Control Act (GCTOC) and Gujarat’s Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2020. “The GCTOC is a law to break anti-social elements. Either they must surrender and stop the criminal acts or they must leave Gujarat. We are also strictly dealing with land grabbing cases with the new laws. BJP is committed to passing strict laws. The next one will be about love jihad, ”he said.

Gujarat already has a law in force, the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act 2003, which prohibits religious conversion for marriage. Rupani’s mention of a specific law to deal with ‘love jihad’ comes in the context of Vadodara witnessing an interfaith marriage case, where BJP leaders, including the MP Ranjan Bhatt, had “advised” the Hindu woman to reconsider her marriage to her Muslim husband last month.

The Vadodara Dabhoi Assembly constituency, MLA, Shailesh Mehta, had also written to Rupani, requesting a law to punish forced religious conversion by marriage.

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