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Gujarat NCP blames it on PCC chief

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Gujarat NCP president Jayant ‘Boski’ Patel told a press conference here on Friday that the Nationalist Congress Party was unhappy with the Congress in Gujarat. The NCP won three out of the nine seats it contested and entered the Assembly for the first time.

“Mr. Narendra Modi has won not on his own but due to the failure of the Congress. In the next election we would like to be on our own.”

He blamed Gujarat Congress president Bharat Solanki for the setback and accused him of inspiring Congress rebels. Most of them were either office-bearers or close relatives of top Congressmen.

“Even in my constituency of Sarasa, Mr. Solanki not only fielded a rebel but also visited it to campaign for him as if he were the official nominee.”

Asked if Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s ‘merchant of death’ remarks against Mr. Modi harmed the alliance, Mr. Patel said: “It is not proper to blame Ms. Gandhi but surely she did not get the best of advice; her advisers should have known that Gujarat is a sensitive State.”

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