| GANDHINAGAR:
While the BJP’s poor performance found CM Narendra Modi going incommunicado, his bete noire Keshubhai Patel has spoken out, giving enough indication that from now on the steam will gather against Modi.
‘‘Gujarat has always set the direction for the whole country, but now Gujarat itself is directionless,’’ he said. Although he refused to elaborate, Patel was clearly blaming the present dispensation for the party’s dismal performance.
Modi has long been seen as autocratic and unapproachable by many in the party. His handling of the power-reforms package had seen the Sangh Parivar’s own farmers’ organisation, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, turn against him. Keshubhai had then come out in support of BKS with other smaller anti-Modi lobbies in the party gathering around him. While Keshubhai refuses comment on whether farmers have gone against BJP or whether Modi has made costly errors, the BKS has been direct and stinging. ‘‘Farmers have expressed their anger against Modi through the ballot. Now that the poll outcome has dealt a severe blow to the BJP, the party leadership should remove Modi,’’ he added.
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Groupism has also been at work. ‘‘The bickering over allotment of tickets to the Patel and Modi camps added fuel to the fire. Modi’s partymen worked against him. The results in Amreli and Mehsana are proof enough. —ENS
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