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Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad
The Congress will boycott the swearing-in ceremony of Gujarat's new chief, Narendra Modi, today, October 7.
Gujarat State Congress Committee president Amarsinh Chaudhry told rediff.com, "The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is spending Rs 3-4 crore on the function, which is just not acceptable to us when the state's coffers are empty and the government has not even paid wages to the labourers who toiled during the drought."
Modi, a general secretary of the BJP and a pracharak (preacher) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, will be sworn in at 1100 IST at a lavish function in the state capital, Gandhinagar.
According to party sources, the function will be the "most memorable show" of recent times.
The party expects a crowd of 50,000 activists to cheer Modi. Legislators have been asked to arrange transport for workers from their respective constituencies.
Meanwhile, according to sources in the BJP, Modi is working overtime to assuage the feelings of the dominant Patel community.
Though fewer than 10 ministers are likely to be sworn in with him on Sunday, the Patels will still get pride of place.
According to an observer in Gandhinagar, Modi's game plan is to create a "new axis" of Patels within the party fold to counter the existing network of sympathisers and supporters of his predecessor, Keshubhai Patel, who was forced out of office by the party's central leadership.
Towards this end, Modi is talking to A K Patel, Nitin Patel and Arvind Patel, all of them from North Gujarat.
From Keshubhai's home turf Saurashtra he already has the support of Dilip Sanghani, member of Parliament from Amreli.
Purshottam Rupala and Shivlal Vekaria, both strong community leaders of Saurashtra, are also siding with Modi now.
In south Gujarat, Narottam Patel and Kanji Patel are opting to toe the party line and support Modi while Anandi Patel, a senior Patel leader and former minister in Keshubhai's Cabinet, is a known Modi loyalist.
At Modi's show on Sunday, the stage itself will be big enough to accommodate more than 100 dignitaries.
Dr A K Patel, former BJP MP from Mehsana, told rediff.com that among the guests would be Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of State for Power Jaywanti Mehta and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The media-savvy Modi has left nothing to chance. He has even issued a press release about three Web sites, narendramodi.com, gujaratindia.com and cmgujarat.com that will Webcast the show live.
All this preparation is evoking mixed reactions. A senior BJP politician said it would raise the public's expectations of Modi.
But Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry said, "What are they [the BJP] celebrating? They have lost the Sabarmati assembly seat and the Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat badly. Since when do people celebrate defeat?"
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