Former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel on Monday met Bharatiya Janata Party chief M Venkaiah Naidu and is understood to have briefed him about the 'discontentment' among party legislators with regard to Chief Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and 'style of functioning'.
Though formally the party maintained it was a 'courtesy call over a cup of tea', Patel's meeting with Naidu assumes significance in the backdrop of the central leadership taking a tough line against the dissidents.
Patel, Modi's arch rival in the party, is also believed to have impressed upon Naidu to make one of his supporters as the state unit president of the BJP. Gujarat is among the seven states where appointment of a new president is due, sources said.
The former chief minister is understood to have urged Naidu to 'accommodate' dissident legislators in the council of ministers as also the various corporations.
Concerned over the growing dissidence, the party high command had asked rebel MLA Purushottam Solanki to apologise publicly for giving anti-Modi statements before the media even as it is believed to have advised Modi to alter his 'style of functioning'.