National

Jaitley’s Gujarat patch-up mission fails again

GANDHINAGAR: Yet another effort by the Bharatiya Janata Party high command to break the deadlock in the Gujarat BJP Legislature Party seems to have gone in vain with dissidents led by the former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel refusing to accept the leadership of Narendra Modi in the coming Assembly elections.

On Monday, the high command’s emissary and election in-charge in the State, failed to convince Mr. Patel and other senior dissident leaders to agree to project Mr. Modi as the party’s nominee for Chief Minister. As the high command has already accepted Mr. Modi’s re-nomination in the event of a BJP victory, Mr. Jaitley had little to offer to the dissidents by way of bargain.

Adding fuel to the fire was a poster depicting Mr. Modi as “Lord Krishna” fighting a “holy war” against the “Kauravas” (Mr. Patel and the dissidents). Though Mr. Jaitley denied that the poster could be the handiwork of any BJP worker, it was handed over to Mr. Modi during a party gathering on the occasion of the birthday of his close aide and Energy Minister Saurabh Patel in his constituency Vallabhipur in Bhavnagar district last week. Mr. Modi and Mr. Saurabh Patel accepted the poster without a murmur of protest and even allowed photographers to take pictures of it.

The issue figured prominently at Mr. Jaitley’s meeting with Mr. Keshubhai Patel here.

Mr. Jaitley is believed to have offered Mr. Patel chairmanship of the party’s election committee having considerable say in the selection of candidates and other poll-related issues. He also promised to pursue with the high command withdrawal of the suspension of all dissidents and to allow on merit re-nomination. But Mr. Patel insisted that Mr. Modi be not considered the automatic choice for Chief Minister.

To Mr. Jaitley’s argument that the high command’s announcement on the chief ministerial nominee could not be reversed at this stage when elections were just three months away, Mr. Patel reportedly said: “You save either an individual or the party.”

Both Mr. Jaitley and Mr. Patel refused to talk to the media. But sources close to the dissident leader confirmed that he declined to budge on his stand of “No Modi” after the elections.

Even during Mr Jaitley’s previous visit at the end of July, talks with Mr Patel failed on the same issue. While the dissidents were firm on not contesting the elections under Mr Modi’s leadership, the official group would not accept anyone else as the leader.

Asked by journalists about the poster issue, Mr. Jaitley said this could not be the work of any BJP worker and that the party did not approve of such depictions. But he neither promised disciplinary action against those responsible for it nor chided Mr. Modi for not protesting against it on the spot.

Meanwhile, a section of BJP youth, participating in Janmashtami celebrations wearing T-shirts with Mr. Modi’s pictures, kicked up a controversy in Surat on Tuesday. Mr. Modi, who cancelled his trip to Mumbai, spent the day there distributing white T-shirts with his pictures printed on the back.

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