The battle is between the BJP and the BJP, six months to the Gujarat
elections.
Three disgruntled BJP stalwarts have joined hands with a breakaway
party faction against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, in what
they claim is a “now or never” battle.
Former chief ministers Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta and former
Union minister Kashiram Rana --- all senior to Modi --- have tied up
with the rebel Mahagujarat Janata Party led by former Gujarat home minister
Gordhan Zadaphia.
So, as Modi gets into poll mode, the fight is not only between the
BJP and the rival Congress. This time round, the battle is within ---
the Modi-led BJP is pitted against the rebel leaders who have sworn
their loyalty to the party.
Keshubhai, the tallest Patel leader in the state, has been bristling
since his unceremonious removal as chief minister in 2001, in which
Modi apparently had a hand. Sources close to him said Keshubhai saw
this as possibly the last chance for him to get even.
While the BJP state executive meet was underway in Rajkot last week,
Keshubhai was addressing a tribal meet in Panchmahal with Zadaphia,
Rana and Mehta. The sidelined BJP leaders have been aggressively mobilising
caste and community groups and debunking Modi's development propaganda.
At least twice in the last seven years --- in 2005 and 2007 --- Keshubhai
has led a revolt against the Modi government but he backtracked midway.
But this time he is firm, sources close to him said. Over the last two
months, he has also been saying at various rallies that people in the
state are living in fear.
“Now he cannot go back on his statement that not just the Patels,
but everybody is living in fear in the state under Modi's regime,”
a source said.
South Gujarat strongman Rana, a seven-time MP from Surat, has been
in political hibernation since Modi refused to re-nominate him in 2009.
“That's because we are loyal, disciplined party members,” said Rana,
an OBC.
“But now it is too much. Modi has fooled everyone, including his
OBC community, which forms 55 per cent of the state's population,”
he said.
Popular among the OBC community in south Gujarat, Rana appeared to
be one with Keshubhai that this was possibly his last chance to pay
Modi back in his own coin.
Mehta, who was briefly the Gujarat chief minister in 1996, is also
a strong critic of Modi. He was industry minister in Modi's cabinet
for two months in 2001, but was then sidelined.
Apart from the stalwarts, Modi has another cause for worry: Kanu Kalsaria,
the Mahuva BJP legislator, who led a farmers' agitation against a proposed
cement plant in Bhavnagar that was coming up on a waterbody.
An OBC like Modi, Kalsaria had gone on a protest padayatra from Mahuva
to Gandhinagar in March last year. Soon after, the Supreme Court upheld
the farmers' contention that the plant would hamper their interests
and cancelled the state's permission to set it up.
“I don't understand why they don't expel me,” said Kalsaria, a
surgeon who is popular for his generosity.
A simple and soft-spoken person, Kalsaria has been running a charitable
hospital, the Sadbhavna Trust, since 1985. Many BJP insiders believe
Modi took a cue from Kalsaria for his controversial sadbhavna mission
--- fasting for peace and communal harmony ---last September.