Caste

Shah saw in him a “killer instinct” and he wanted to repeat his experiment of

1. non-Jat CM in Haryana, 
2. non-Maratha in Maharashtra and 
3. non-tribal in Jharkhand. 

Similarly, he wanted a non-Patel in Gujarat to push the point that the Modi-Shah duo wants to promote “caste-neutral” leaders. Shah had made up his mind. He was confident he would get the MLAs to understand that Rupani was the best choice to lead.