New Gujarat party hopes to end bad record of regional groups

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD, JUNE 30. Regional parties have failed in Gujarat but a new State-level party claims it will succeed because it will not be a by-product of the Congress or BJP.

Mr. Vishnu Pandya, who has been a member of four national parties, claims the people of Kutch and Saurashtra can identify with his party, which is tentatively named as the Mahagujarat Party.

The party is named after the Maha Gujarat movement which led to the formation of Gujarat from the Bombay state.

Mr. Pandya, a journalist, claims he is supported by disgruntled and second rung leaders of all major national parties in Gujarat.

Mr. Pandya was once a confidant of Mr. Shankarsinh Vaghela and began his political career with the BJP. He left the BJP when Mr. Vaghela formed the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) and made him its national co-ordinator.

When the RJP merged with the Congress(I) last year, Mr. Pandya joined the new party. But he found the Congress uncomfortable and left Mr. Vaghela to join the Samata Party.

The Samata Party which was new in Gujarat made him a national general secretary. But Mr. Pandya could not work with Samata's state unit president, Mr Pravinsinh Jadeja.

Mr. Pandya claimed Mr. Jadeja was being ``patronised'' by the party's national president, Ms Jaya Jaitley, for ``narrow personal reasons.'' He even blamed the party chief, Mr. Fernandes, for Samata's poor performance in the State.

Many senior Congress(I) leaders, who belonged to the former Janata Dal (Gujarat), and some disgruntled BJP members were willing to join the Samata Party but did not want to work under a ``relatively junior'' leader like Mr Jadeja. But he was not removed from his post.

Mr. Pandya then left the party and is about to form the Mahagujarat Party with some ``second rank leaders'' of the Congress(I) and the BJP.

A decision on the formal launch of the party, its name and constitution was expected to be taken at a convention in Gandhinagar on July 16. Mr. Pandya knows that regional parties have failed in Gujarat but he is confident that the new party would be able to catch the imagination of the people.

``So far all these regional parties were the by- products of the Congress(I) or the BJP. They were formed by disgruntled elements of the national parties. But the Mahagujarat party will be new, concentrate only on the State's development and address the problems facing the State,`` he said. Youths would be at the centre of the new party and party posts will not be given to persons above the age of 65.

The party's first test will be the coming elections to the municipal corporations and the district and the taluka panhayats.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Other States
Previous : 'Citizenship notice' to Editor sparks Cachar bandh
Next     : 9 Manipur MLAs served notices