Vijay Rupani resigned as Chief Minister of Gujarat on Saturday evening in an unexpected move ahead of an Assembly election in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state early next year.

It is unclear at this time what precipitated Mr Rupani's resignation.

Mr Rupani is the fourth BJP chief minister to step down in recent months; in July BS Yediyurappa resigned as Chief Minister of Karnataka in July and the double whammy in Uttarakhand, where Tirath Singh Rawat quit barely four months after replacing Trivendra Rawat