Fearing threat to life, Sanjay Joshi writes to PC

Former Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Sanjay Joshi has written a letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, claiming he has received death threats.

Joshi, who resigned from the BJP earlier in June, has also written to the Delhi police in this regard and asked for security.

Joshi has in his letter claimed that he has been receiving death threats from an anonymous caller for the past few weeks.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has had a bitter rivalry with Joshi for years, was opposed to his being brought back into the party. Joshi was re-inducted into the BJP in September last year.

Joshi was a long-time member of the Gujarat BJP and was a member of the BJP national executive until he was forced to resign under pressure from Modi.

A mechanical engineer by training, Joshi was a lecturer in an engineering college, but he resigned to become a full-time volunteer in the nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Maharashtra. Noting his organisational acumen, he was asked to join the BJP in Gujarat in 1988, where the party was politically weak. He is known for his good rapport with grass-root level workers.

Joshi became a leading figure in BJP politics in Gujarat. From 1988 to 1995, he worked closely with Narendra Modi as a secretary of the Gujarat BJP.

After a revolt by Shankersinh Vaghela, Modi was shunted out, and BJP won in the subsequent elections in 1998. Joshi became the general secretary of the BJP in Gujarat. In 1998, when Modi wished to return to Gujarat, Joshi had opposed the move.

In 2001, the Modi faction overturned the leadership of Keshubhai Patel and Modi became the chief minister.

In 2005, Joshi was accused of being involved in a controversial sex CD, which led to his being removed from all posts in the BJP.

Later, it was found that the CD had been doctored.

Nonetheless, Joshi was not reinstated for six years, primarily due to opposition from the Gujarat faction. In 2011, Gadkari re-appointed Joshi as the coordinator for the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and appointed him to the national executive.