NCP a potential threat for BJP and Cong

Anil Pathak / TNN / Jun 18, 2006, 21:38 IST

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Both the major parties have started closing their ranks before it spoils their prospects in 2007 Assembly polls.

AHMEDABAD: Nationalist Congress Party gradually emerging as a force to reckon with in Gujarat is likely to pose a threat not only to BJP but the Congress and both the major parties have started closing their ranks before it spoils their prospects in 2007 Assembly polls.
Perturbed over possibility of some suspended BJP MLAs like Rakesh Rav, Sidharth Parmar and Ramila Desai might throw their weight in favour of NCP in case they are denied BJP ticket, some senior leaders have started hobnobbing with these MLAs to see that they do not leave the party.
State BJP general secretary Jayantilal Barot had a two-hour long talk with Rakesh Rav at the BJP office in Khanpur and it is believed that Barot persuaded the MLA from Matar not to take any hasty decision as he would be given a party ticket to recontest from Matar.
It is not known whether similiar efforts would be made to convince Sidharth Parmar and Desai who have also been placed under suspension following anti-Modi campaign they had launched last year.

Reliable party sources have hinted that the suspension against Rav would be withdrawn shortly while the fate of Parmar elected from Rajkot city and Desai representing Kheralu in Mehsana district is still uncertain.
While in the Congress camp too, hectic political activities are witnessed ever since Bharatsinh Solanki has been made GPCC president.
A section of the Congress leaders in North Gujarat headed by former minister Ishversinh Chavda have reportedly threatened the party that if corrective measures are not taken, several taluka and district level leaders of the Congress would join the NCP in coming days.

It is learnt that Chavda is leaving for Delhi on Monday to meet NCP supremo and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to discuss the political situation and whether the NCP would offer him better opportunities in case he joined the party alongwith his supporters in north Gujarat.
Senior functionaries of the GPCC are aware of the crisis brewing in the party and have also alerted their high command which might direct senior leaders of Gujarat to work out a compromise formula fore it was too late.
Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel who is in-charge of Gujarat affairs of NCP is also visiting the state on Saturday to take stock of political situation in Gujarat.
The NCP has made its presence felt in Gujarat by bagging 76 seats in municipal and panchayat elections and has also established its control over Sutrapada municipality and Babra and Rapar taluka panchayats and has plans to contest all the 182 seats in the ensuing Assembly election.

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