The Hindu : National : Our main aim is to defeat Modi, says Jhadafiya

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Our main aim is to defeat Modi, says Jhadafiya

Special Correspondent

Anti-Modi forces launch outfit

AHMEDABAD: Even as negotiations are on with the Congress to accommodate the BJP dissidents in its list of candidates for the December Gujarat Assembly elections, the Sardar Patel Utkarsha Samiti, formed by the anti-Narendra Modi forces, has decided not to use the banner to contest the polls.

The former Minister of State for Home and the most vocal dissident leader, Gordhan Jhadafiya, who has already announced his decision not to contest the elections, has been appointed the Samiti chairman. The former Chief Minister, Suresh Mehta, who too has opted out of the electoral battle, is its advisor.

Mr. Jhadafiya has claimed that the veteran leader and principal rival of Mr. Modi, the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, had given his blessings to the Samiti though he was not directly connected with it.

The Samiti structure was formally formed on the eve of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel birth anniversary on Wednesday. Mr. Jhadafiya said that though no candidate would contest the elections under the Samiti banner, it would campaign for all the candidates opposed to the Chief Minister. “We may campaign for the Congress or Uma Bharati’s Bharatiya Janashakti Party. Our main aim is to defeat Mr. Modi and nothing else,” he said.

On the occasion of Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary, the Samiti organised a rally at Dhoraji in Rajkot district in the Saurashtra region, giving a call to the voters to defeat Mr. Modi’s candidates.

The Congress also held a rally at the Sardar’s birthplace, Karamsad in Kaira district in central Gujarat, attended, among others, by Ahmed Patel, political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi; the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, currently on a visit to the State as AICC observer; Union Textile Minister Shankarsinh Waghela and others.

Mr. Waghela alleged that the recent Tehelka sting operation was “managed” by the BJP itself to recreate the communal sentiment in the State that helped the party win the 2002 elections hands down.

Meanwhile, the BJP State parliamentary board began its six-day sittings here from Wednesday for preliminary selection of its candidates in the presence of Mr. Modi. The first list was expected to be announced by November 20.

The presence of some of the erstwhile dissident MLAs at the board meeting gave a clear indication that the number of disgruntled members, which earlier was said to be more than 40 in the 126-member BJP legislature party, has started shrinking rapidly.

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