Date:28/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/28/stories/2007092858540100.htm

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Keshubhai Patel all set to leave BJP

Special Correspondent

Keshubhai Patel

AHMEDABAD: After nearly five decades of association with the Sangh Parivar, the former Gujarat Chief Minister and veteran leader, Keshubhai Patel, is all set to part company with the BJP.

By staying away from the BJP convention for the first time here on Wednesday, Mr. Patel made it clear that he has snapped ties with “Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.” The party high command, including president Rajnath Singh and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani who were present on the dais, has indicated that the efforts to try to bring round the dissidents are over.

Technically Mr. Patel and some other dissident leaders, barring those seven members of the Assembly already suspended, are still in the BJP; it may not take any immediate initiative to throw them out of the party, but they are inching closer to the Congress than their parent organisation.

During the past few months, since the dissidents openly came out against Mr. Modi with Mr. Patel’s blessings, the Chief Minister reportedly made it clear to the party high command that either he should be given a free hand to manage the party’s election affairs or it should risk the BJP losing control of its stronghold, Gujarat.

Considering the popular support Mr. Modi is still enjoying, particularly among the urban population and the youth in the rural areas, the party high command preferred to stay with the Chief Minister rather than risking the BJP’s prospects in the coming elections. Though Mr. Patel can make some dent in the BJP stronghold in the Saurashtra region, by the party’s calculation, Mr. Modi will still be able to at least scrape through the magic figure of 92 seats in the 182-member Assembly.

The two leaders who have assiduously built up the party in the State from scratch, Shankarsinh Waghela and Mr. Patel, are now out of it. Mr. Waghela was thrown out of the party after he first revolted against the Patel Ministry in 1995 and then a year later brought down the Suresh Mehta government and himself became Chief Minister with the outside support of the Congress.