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Modi threatened to quit if Joshi didn't step down

May 24, 2012 21:46 IST

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had threatened to resign from the Bharatiya Janata Party national executive to force the resignation of fellow party leader Sanjay Joshi.

Purshottam Rupala, a confidante of Modi, gave the Gujarat chief minister's resignation letter to BJP president Nitin Gadkari at the agenda meeting of the national executive in Mumbai on Thursday.

Rupala told Gadkari that Modi would quit the national executive if Joshi did not resign.

Modi also threatened that neither he nor any BJP member would attend the national executive meeting if his demand was not met.

It was only after that the BJP top brass was forced to ask Joshi, who was embroiled in a sex CD scandal, to quit his post in the national executive.

Later in the day, veteran party leader L K Advani chose to ignore the Gujarat chief minister when the latter arrived at the meeting venue.

As soon as Modi arrived at the Y B Chavan auditorium, Advani, who was present at the morning session, cited health reasons and left the venue.

Sheela Bhatt