Home truth: Revenge on mind, rivals gang up against Modi

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is good at quelling intra-party dissent. The method does not matter, what matters is he comes out winner all the time. He proved it only recently by arm-twisting the BJP leadership to tow his line on senior RSS leader Sanjay Joshi. His rise and rise to power in Gujarat through the Sangh Parivar ranks to chief minister has been a long story of victories over rivals in bruising battles. But this time as he prepares for the assembly elections, he could be faced with the biggest challenge of his career. Opposition to him seems to be gathering force within the party and aided by external factors, it could leave him in some trouble. Recent developments suggest that the party could be staring at a split with his avowed enemies joining hands to show him his place. The move is being orchestrated by known Modi baitor and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel. Giving him company are dissidents like Kashiram Rana, Suresh Mehta and Gordhan Zadaphia, chief of the Maha Gujarat Party. Zadaphia, a former home minister, had severed links from the BJP in 2007 following serious differences with Modi. The game plan of the BJP leaders is not clear yet but they could be planning to switch loyalty to Zadaphia’s party. [caption id=“attachment_326601” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Facing rebels. PTI”]  [/caption] Keshubhai Patel, a leader of the Leuva Patels, is desperate to avenge his total marginalisation in the party, in the state’s politics and the community by Modi. This Patel subgroup had voted heavily against the chief minister in the general elections of 2009. The grouse of the community originates from the fact that Modi has been favouring Kadva Patels, another Patel sub-group, at the expense of the Leuvas. Keshubhai has been a loser in his fight against Modi. In 2007, he appealed his community to vote against the latter but it rejected it rather vehemently. Modi performed better than before in the Patel stronghold Saurashtra. This time, he is starting all over again encouraged by the fact that some Patel candidates put up by the BJP lost in the region in the 2009 elections. He has started mobilising his community again. But on his own, he carries little weight. The combination of Zadaphia, Suresh Mehta and some dissident Congress leaders too is not expected to give him much of a chance against Modi. Yes, there are pockets of resentment against the establishment in general after the Gujarat riot verdicts. Most of the convicts are Patels. But this is not likely to translate into an electoral threat for Modi. What he should be worried about the Sanjay Joshi, the man he just forced to quit as the BJP national executive member. Joshi is known to be an able organiser with good popularity at the grassroots level. He is respected across all the Sangh Parivar umbrella is known to be brilliant at mobilising people. If he decides to join forces with Keshubhai and Co, it would be a much tougher battle for Modi. That he was apprehensive of Joshi’s presence in Gujarat was evident when he scuttled latter’s train travel plan to Lucknow through Gujarat. Sections of the Sangh Parivar and Zadaphia’s party had plans to welcome him at several railway stations in Gujarat. Under Modi’s pressure, Joshi was directed by the party to take a flight to Lucknow. Modi does not forget a slight but neither does Joshi. The old sangh hand could already be plotting his next move. That the elections would be the best time to strike back would be on his mind. But Modi is known to have tamed such challenges before. He has already built a constituency beyond the Sangh Parivar for himself. He has shifted carefully from Hindutva to development. The new constituency had given him a thumping majority in 2007. There’s no reason why he won’t repeat the feat this time.