Anti-Modi campaign reaches BJP headquarters

With Kashiram Rana, former Union minister and disgruntled leader with many complaints against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, arriving in New Delhi from Surat to meet the top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the issue of dissidence against Modi has reached 11, Ashok Road, the party headquarters.

Former Gujarat chief minister Suresh Mehta, who is already camping in New Delhi, is expected to meet BJP president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, the pro-Modi group had done their bit to present their side of the story to Rajnath Singh.

The pro-Modi group led by ministers like Purshottam Rupala, Amit Shah, Kaushik Patel and Bhupendra Singh Chudasama is camping in New Delhi.

They are trying to impress upon the party headquarters that those who are indulging in defaming Modi should be served a notice for indiscipline.

However, that would be a tough call to take because among the dissidents there are some who are former chief ministers and Union ministers and, more importantly, some of them are Patels, the powerful community supporting the party.

The pro-Modi section forcefully argues that Modi's popularity is intact, that BJP has maintained its edge among the Gujarat voters, that the clean image of Modi is unchallengeable and the development of Gujarat is exemplary.

The pro-Modi group also says that the so-called talk of Patels shifting their political support to the Congress is untrue.
 
They say that the Patels, who are powerful and vocal, will not shift to the Congress in view of the latter's caste combination in its top state leadership, which has more Kshatriyas like state chief Bharat Solanki and Union minister Shankersinh Vaghela.
 
Also, out of around 130 legislators it is said that only 30 or so have openly rebelled against Modi. Some 30 to 40 MLAs have the greed for party ticket in spite of their poor performance. 
 
"There are MLAs who know they are going to lose and so won't be nominated again in the coming election. They have joined the anti-Modi campaign," a Modi supporter said.

The manner in which the pro-Modi and anti-Modi groups are creating pressure on the party headquarters is reminiscent of the political battle the party faced in the mid-'90s between Keshubhai Patel and Vaghela, which ultimately led to break-up of the BJP.

The tussle within the BJP in Gujarat is quite serious and will certainly take its toll, believe many experts.

Even if the Gujarat BJP doesn't get further divided, it will continue to have enemies within, and the party's official candidate will face challenges in the state's nooks and corners.

It appears that Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party will get some backing from the BJP rebels if the NCP selects their candidates carefully.

Even the Congress can expect a windfall if Modi fails to pacify his own partymen whose egos he has punctured time and again.
 
Already, Dhirubhai Gajera, a recently suspended leader and wealthy diamond merchant, has said that his group will support Congress candidates.

Currently, the anti-Modi faction in the BJP is on the streets accusing him openly by organising many sammelans (public meetings). So far, 40 sammelans have been organised by the dissidents and increasingly, they are attracting crowds.
 
It started under the pretext of the Patel-community sammelan in Surat.

But, surprisingly, within the party the divide is vertical. On August 4, a dissidents' meeting in Patan had more than 1,000 party workers who were listening to the anti-Modi campaign from their seniors with delight.

The Gujarat assembly election is due in December this year, and Modi has no option but to wait for three more months.

By threatening to resign or by dissolving the assembly, he is not in a position to gain much because it's too late.
 
The voters list has been published and the Election Commission has started its pre-election exercise, but in view of the monsoon and the season of religious festivals ahead, the elections will be almost on schedule.

"Modi has said in the presence of industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata that Gujarat has got Rs 1 lakh crore of investment. It turns out to be the biggest joke. The poor people are waiting to hear speeches against Modi in spite of the rains. This shows that his government has failed to serve them," one dissident leader from Kutch told rediff.com.

Dr Vallabh Kathiria, former Union minister and Patel leader from Rajkot, told rediff.com, "We are in the BJP and we will remain in the BJP. We are against Modi, not against the party. Don't call us dissidents. We are people fighting against the injustice of Modi.
 
"Modi is a dictator. He is an autocrat. He is not keeping the workers with him. He is conducting hypocritical propaganda and is running his government on hype. We are worried about our party. We want our party to get strengthened," he added.