Modi ready for counter-attack on Gujarat Congress leaders

AHMEDABAD: The impending arrest of Gujarat's minister of state for home Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin encounter case is likely to unleash an era of political vengeance of the Mayawati versus Mulayam kind or Jayalalithaa versus Karunanidhi variety. This is something Gujarat hasn't seen in the past 50 years of its relatively stable political existence but is likely to unfold in the Golden Jubilee year.
Even though it is clearly the Supreme Court, which is directing the probe, the Narendra Modi government is painting this as UPA's political witch-hunt through the CBI.In the last week or so, it has identified targets for counter-attacks. Sources in Gandhinagar say it with surety that the Gujarat police could soon be booking old offences against some senior Congress leaders.
Dossiers stored over the years have been pulled out for retribution. Ministers in the Modi Cabinet, who don't get along with Shah, are amazed at the lengths to which the CM is willing to go in defence of Shah. “Modi is convinced that if it is Amit Shah now, he could be the next target by the time the Bihar Assembly election campaign is ripe,” said a minister who recently heard the CM saying that this was a "political conspiracy".
An eye for an eye is the central theme of this political battle and there is nervousness in the Congress camp too over the impending CBI action. A senior Congress leader said the Modi government has shown in the past its ability to target political opponents not only in the Congress but also in BJP — with press reports now suggesting that the CBI has evidence that even the alleged sex CD, which sunk the career of former BJP general secretary Sanjay Joshi, was filmed and leaked out by the same police network which fixed Sohrabuddin.