The Hindu : Haren Pandya relents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 26, 2002

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Haren Pandya relents

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD NOV. 25. After preventing the party from giving nomination to his "arch enemy", Haren Pandya, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, today filed his nomination papers for the Maninagar seat in Ahmedabad city today, the last day for filling nominations for the December 12 elections to the Assembly. His Congress rival, Yatin Oza, also filed his papers for the seat.

While the BJP will be contesting all the 182 seats in the Assembly, the Congress has put up candidates for 180 seats, leaving the Bhavnagar North for the CPI(M) and Jamnagar City to the CPI to contest as common candidates against the BJP.

Despite pressure from both the State and Central leadership of the BJP, Mr. Modi thwarted all efforts by his former Minister of State for Revenue, Haren Pandya, to secure re-nomination for the Ellisbridge seat in the city. As it became evident late on Sunday night that Mr. Modi would not budge, Mr. Pandya opted out of the contest on the advice of some senior party leaders, paving the way for an ''amicable solution'' to the stand-off between him and Mr. Modi.

The State election committee of the BJP, which met twice on Sunday evening after Mr. Modi was discharged from the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, made repeated efforts to convince him to relent. The former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta, and the Union Textiles Minister, Kashiram Rana, supported Mr. Pandya's cause. Feelers were also sent from the party high command to re-nominate Mr. Pandya. Mr. Modi, however, stuck to his stand that he himself would not contest if Mr. Pandya was given the ticket. At one stage, Mr. Patel had even threatened to withdraw from campaigning if his close confidant was not given the Ellisbridge ticket.

However, he relented under pressure from his other supporters who would be contesting on the BJP ticket.

The situation reached an impasse but Mr. Pandya was later forced to opt out of the contest on the assurance that his "nominee" would be given the ticket. Accordingly, at his recommendation, one of his strong supporters, Bhavin Sheth, a BJP member of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, was nominated for the seat.

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