Joshi emerges rebel patron

TNN / Aug 7, 2005, 20:17 IST

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Evidence is starting to emerge that the intra-BJP fight in Gujarat has a national dimension.

GANDHINAGAR: Evidence is starting to emerge that the intra-BJP fight in Gujarat, which resurfaced after rebel leader Gordhan Zadaphia snubbed CM Narendra Modi by refusing to join his Cabinet, has a national dimension.
Party insiders are beginning to recognise that if Modi has the solid support of BJP president LK Advani, the rebels are finding sustenance from Advani��s main challenger, exhuman resources minister MM Joshi.
During the recent crisis, while Modi was in constant touch with Advani, the rebel BJP MPs and MLAs have been acting on Joshi's advice. The rebels are hoping that Joshi will succeed Advani as BJP president.
Party insiders say Joshi's relations with Modi turned sour during the Bharat Ekta Yatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar in 1992.

Joshi chose Modi as the leader who was to accompany him through the yatra. However, Joshi realised Modi was trying to derive mileage from the event. A senior BJP leader, who recently met Joshi, recalled that Modi got printed hundreds of posters with his own photograph and had them distributed. Joshi obviously did not like Modi's attempt to project himself and had all these posters withdrawn.
BJP leaders also recall that during Modi's tenure as chief minister since October 2001, Joshi has never made an official visit to the state �� except for a Lok Sabha election rally last year near Chotila when Joshi reached Rajkot straight from Mumbai.

After the Lok Sabha results, Joshi sharply criticised Modi's remarks on Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin during the election campaign. Citing Modi's remarks which said Gandhi wasn't fit to become a clerk and Rahul Gandhi a driver, Joshi held Modi's language responsible for middle-class voters turning away from the BJP.
Party sources said Joshi was fully in agreement with then prime minister AB Vajpayee, who wanted to remove Modi from chief ministership after the Gujarat riots, but could not do so because of Advani's veto. It is ironical now that while the RSS and the VHP had supported Modi at that time, most of them have now turned against Modi because he reciprocated Advani's gesture by backing him fully during the recent row over the remarks on Jinnah and Babri.

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