Monday, Sep 23, 2002
Monday, Sep 23, 2002 |
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By Manas Dasgupta
Addressing a series of meetings today during the third leg of his "gaurav rath yatra'' currently passing through south Gujarat region, he said the Congress had no concern for the unity of the society or the welfare of the people. The Congress "hunger for power" was driving it to "create divisions in the society to capture Muslim votes. It is behaving like a new incarnation of the Muslim League.'' In a brief chat with mediapersons here, he reiterated that the riots in Vadodara were a fallout of the arrest in Lisbon of the noted criminal, Abu Salem. "The information the State Government has led us to conclude that the riots were caused by the arrest of Abu Salem,'' he said. He, however, did not elaborate. Compared to the first two legs, the third leg of the rath yatra, however, is receiving a lukewarm reception and senior BJP leaders attribute it to the growing differences between Mr. Modi and the Union Textile Minister, Kashiram Rana, the main BJP stalwart in the region. Ever since Mr. Modi took over as Chief Minister in October last year, there had been a consistent attempt to weaken Mr. Rana's political base in the region. Some of the junior leaders who have fallen out with Mr. Rana are being given importance in the party at the cost of his supporters. Not only in the district and regional set-ups, Mr. Rana was also given a raw deal in the reconstitution of the State unit of the party recently. At the behest of Mr. Modi, Mr. Rana's close confidant, Fakirbhai Chauhan, was denied the post of party general secretary. Though Mr. Rana's strong critic, Jayanti Kevat, was dropped as general secretary, he was made in-charge of the party's frontal organisations, a more important position. Mr. Kevat, who along with another Rana critic, C. R. Patil, has been accused of involvement in several scams in Surat, is one of the chief organisers of the gaurav yatra in the south Gujarat region. Mr. Rana wanted the two to be disassociated from the yatra to remove the "tainted'' image of Mr. Modi. Not only at the political level, Mr. Rana's stature as the stalwart of the ruling party in his home region has also been shattered among the trade and commercial sectors in south Gujarat. Despite Mr. Rana's strong recommendations, the Modi Government refused to extend the power subsidy to the weavers, or solve the problems of the diamond-cutters, the two largest business sectors in the region, who are considered to be Mr. Rana's supporters. Mr. Rana's sudden outburst on the eve of the launching of the third leg of the rath yatra at the tribal pilgrim centre of Unnai has brought to the fore the differences growing between Mr. Modi and him. Mr. Modi perceived Mr. Rana as a potential challenger for the chief ministership if a change of leadership was considered after the Assembly elections. Mr. Rana's statement that Mr. Modi was not the automatic choice for the post after the elections was in tune with the similar sentiments expressed by the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, earlier.
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