"Vijay Rupani was going to London by the Air India flight," said senior state BJP leader Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.
Legislative assembly elections in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state are due next year.
On Sunday, Rupani, 64, fainted on stage while addressing a rally in Vadodara for the upcoming civic polls in the state, following which he was flown to Ahmedabad and admitted to the U N Mehta Hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and chief ministers of various BJP-ruled states attended the ceremony.
Earlier this month, government sources said Indian and US officials were engaged in talks to finalise the dates for Trump's visit to India. "Both sides are in discussions to finalise the dates," a source said. Trump's two-day visit to India could take place on February 24-26.
Born in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar) Rupani, 61, joined an RSS shakha as a schoolboy, before graduating to the BJP via the Sangh's students wing -- the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The chief minister is not being hailed as the leader who led the party to a victory in the state.
Vijay Rupani was among 242 persons on board a London-bound Air India flight that crashed into a building of a medical college and hostel in the Meghaninagar area moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday afternoon.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel met the family members of Rupani and informed them about the DNA match, state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel said.
Thousands of people gathered along the entire route of the funeral procession to give a poignant send-off to the late BJP leader at his hometown, where his mortal remains were flown from Ahmedabad four days after the tragedy.
The Supreme Court has been informed that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's final draft report on the June 2025 Air India flight AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad will be submitted in October. The court is hearing petitions seeking an independent probe into the accident, which claimed 260 lives.
Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and ex-deputy CM Nitin Patel, both senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Wednesday night announced they will not fight the next month's assembly elections.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed after their aircraft crashed in Baramati on January 28, 2026. Here are 11 other prominent Indians who died in air crashes.
Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who died in a tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday, joined the list of several top Indian politicians and prominent personalities who lost their lives in aviation accidents.
British High Commissioner to India, Lindy Cameron, paid tribute to the victims on the first anniversary of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which claimed 260 lives, including 52 British nationals. She visited the crash site and attended a prayer meet, where 260 trees were planted and a blood donation camp was organised.
British High Commissioner to India, Lindy Cameron, paid tribute to the victims on the first anniversary of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which claimed 260 lives, including 52 British nationals. She visited the crash site and attended a prayer meet, where 260 trees were planted and a blood donation camp was organised.
Though the party has made no announcement, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister in the outgoing government, is being seen as the frontrunner for the key position.
It was widely speculated that the mantle would fall on Nitin Patel.
State agriculture minister R C Faldu and Union minister Purshottam Rupala's names are also being considered a front-runners.
A year after the tragic Air India flight AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad claimed 260 lives, grieving families are still waiting for the final probe report, with investigators yet to release conclusive findings on the disaster's cause.
As she steps down, a look at the top two contenders -- Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel -- who could become Gujarat's next chief minister.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reshuffled his cabinet, inducting 19 new ministers and elevating Harsh Sanghavi to Deputy Chief Minister. The swearing-in ceremony took place on Friday, with several existing ministers continuing in their roles.
Meanwhile, an independent MLA in Gujarat has declared his support to the BJP.
At Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, DNA samples from over 190 relatives are being matched with victims of the Air India crash, a process expected to take up to 72 hours.
Vijay Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel took oath on Sunday in Gandhinagar.
'The BJP's top leadership realised that their cadres are not happy with them, so they changed the ministers and got in new faces.'
Patel rejected the charge as "completely baseless" and urged the Bharatiya Janata Party not to politicise matters pertaining to national security and divide the peace-loving Gujaratis.
Deputy Chief Minister Nitinbhai Patel will contest from Mahesana
Talking to reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet, he said Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and the entire cabinet offered tributes to those who had lost their lives in the June 12 plane crash in Ahmedabad during the meet.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal's 88-year-old father is consoled by well wishers. Captain Sabharwal was the flight commander on the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon.
The MLA from the Khadia-Jamalpur seat of Ahmedabad will be admitted to a designated COVID-19 hospital soon, he said.
Vijay Rupani, the fourth chief minister to demit office in BJP-ruled states during the coronavirus pandemic, was sworn in as chief minister -- his second stint as CM -- in December 2017.
'He is a man of action and goes to the ground and solves the problem.' 'Be it the Air India crash of Ahmedabad, Morbi bridge collapse, Deesa blast or Gambhira bridge collapse, he is on the spot.'
Rupani on Sunday met Governor O P Kohli and staked claim to form the government, a day after he was elected by BJP legislators to succeed Anandiben Patel.
In the wake of a significant decline in Covid-19 cases, the Gujarat government on Friday announced that private as well as government offices in the state can now function with 100 per cent staff from June 7.
An official expressed hope that the DNA profiling all the victims will be completed by either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.
Some observers also point to the way he handled the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and economic and social distress that followed it, even suggesting that it may have contributed to his downfall.
The reset button that the Bharatiya Janata Party has pressed on governance in the wake of the Covid-19 wave, which also saw a major overhaul by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his own Cabinet, continues as Vijay Rupani on Saturday became the fourth chief minister from the party to go.
A government employee in Kerala has been suspended for making an offensive comment on Facebook about a Keralite nurse who died in the Ahmedabad plane crash.
BJP president Amit Shah had said during the campaign that the party was fighting the election under Rupani and Nitin Patel.
