Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi called on Bharatiya Janata Party rebel Keshubhai Patel at his residence to seek the blessings. After being sworn-in as chief minister for the third consecutive time, Modi visited Patel's home in Gandhinagar on Tuesday. Keshubhai, a former chief minister, was issued a notice along with some other BJP leaders last week, for hurting the interests of the party during the elections
Veteran politician Keshubhai Patel, who quit the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this year to take on Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the coming Gujarat assembly elections, on Saturday said the people of the state desired a change of government. "After my parivartan yatra through the state, I felt that the undercurrent seeking to change this non-performing government is strong, especially amongst the poor and jobless youth," said Patel.
Details of the meeting are yet to emerge.
In a development that could hurt the chances of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Saurashtra, Bharat Patel, son of rebel BJP leader Keshubhai Patel, on Friday rejected the offer of fighting the Assembly election on BJP ticket.
Former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel died in Ahmedabad on Thursday after prolonged illness, family sources said. Patel (92) had recovered from Covid-19 recently and was rushed to a hospital in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning following health complications, the sources said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may find the going tough for the upcoming assembly elections as his predecessor and Bharatiya Janata Party warhorse, Keshubhai Patel, is mobilising politically influential Patel community which can tilt the power balance in the state.
The Modi-baiter who is on a mission to mobilise support for the ouster of the BJP stalwart seems to have made up his mind to float a new party.
Modi drove to the residence of Patel, who fell out with the BJP stalwart and floated his own party ahead of the election, in Gandhinagar to meet him. "Modiji had come to seek blessings after his win in the elections. I congratulated him for the win," Patel said after Modi's visit.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat was unable to end its 18-year jinx in Visavadar as it lost the bypolls to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party despite a strong campaign.
Soon after his arrival in the morning at the Ahmedabad airport for a two-day Gujarat visit, Modi directly reached Patel's residence in Gandhinagar and offered floral tributes to the veteran politician, who headed the first BJP-led government in the state in 1995.
Gujarat assembly poll results have shown that former chief minister Keshubhai Patel, who formed his own party just before the elections with the aim of dislodging his bete noire Narendra Modi, has failed to inspire voters in his own Saurashtra region, which more or less tilted towards the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rebel Bharatiya Janata Party leader Keshubhai Patel, who announced the formation of a new party to take on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming assembly polls, is likely to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the anti-Modi outfit and is hoping that a large number of dissident BJP workers will crossover.
'I disagree with much of Modi's politics, but it cannot be denied that in these years in office, he has carved more than a niche for himself in history,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
In a major blow to the recently formed Gujarat Parivartan Party floated by former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel, his son Bharat on Monday rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Ahmedabad.
Maha-Gujarat Janta party president Gordhan Zadafia on Wednesday announced merger of his outfit with Keshubhai Patel's newly-formed Gujarat Parivartan Party in Ahmedabad.
Keshubhai hopeful about a leadership change in Gujarat
'With tears in his eyes, he told me in Gujarati, "What have they done to this country? It has so much potential." That feeling for the country -- it was striking.'
Continuing his campaign against the Gujarat chief minister, disgruntled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Keshubhai Patel on Sunday alleged that Narendra Modi holds "monopoly over lying" and questioned his motive behind the Sadbhavna Mission.
Taking further his political battle against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, dissident Bharatiya Janata Party leader Keshubhai Patel has expressed his willingness to contest upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Modi men meet Keshubhai after Delhi trip
'I had a brief telephonic talk with Vajpayee and told him about my views about the party's problems,' Patel said.
He said that he would brief the BJP high command about the "prevailing atmosphere of fear" in Gujarat.
Announcing the launch of the party, Keshubhai said that the GPP would contest all the 182 seats in the state assembly election slated to be held by the end of this year.
He portrayed Modi as a leader against the interests of farmers and asked them to vote for a pro-farmers party.
Election Commission on Thursday slapped a notice on former Chief Minister and Gujarat Parivartan Party president Keshubhai Patel for violating election code of conduct while going to a polling booth with a pilot car.
Gujarat Parivartan Party President Keshubhai Patel on Wednesday said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra should first make his expenses on foreign trips public before raising questions over expenditure incurred on Sonia Gandhi's foreign tours.
Let there be no doubt that Modi in these 24 years so far has reshaped politics and governance considerably, if not completely, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Gujarat Parivartan Party supremo Keshubhai Patel on Thursday said the people would vote for a change in the state, and added that Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be thrown out of power after the assembly polls.
In the last 11 years, India and the world witnessed what he stood for, what he promised and did not deliver, and what he actually stood for and practised without fearing how history would judge him. Modi's tenure has been punctuated with headline-grabbing decisions, symbolic gestures, and stage-managed moments that continue to define his leadership and India's politics, points out Ramesh Menon.
Dissident Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel will meet senior party leaders in Delhi on Tuesday to raise a pitch of his campaign against state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, sources said.
Gujarat is likely to witness a triangular fight in this year's assembly polls, as dissident Bharatiya Janata Party leaders -- opposed to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and led by former chief minister Keshubhai Patel -- are set to float their own party.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's march towards a two-third majority was halted by the presence of Keshubhai Patel's party in Saurashtra and the saffron outfit suffered reverses in Chief Minister Narendra Modi's own backyard of north Gujarat.
Former Chief Minister of Gujarat Keshubhai Patel flew into New Delhi from Ahmedabad on Tuesday and had meetings with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Dr Murali Manohar Joshi.
Keshubhai Patel, who was the rallying point for the detractors of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and Rana were accused of 'sabotaging' the party's poll prospects through their public statements, which 'helped' the ruling BJP's political rivals in the state.
Undaunted by Bharatiya Janata Party president L K Advani's praise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, party rebels of the state on Wednesday met a number of senior leaders as part of their efforts to seek Modi's ouster.
Taking umbrage at Navjot Singh Sidhu's remark in which he termed him as an "anti-national leader", Gujarat Parivartan Party president Keshubhai Patel on Saturday appealed to the Election Commission to take suo motu action against the Bharatiya Janata Party MP and his party.
The Gujarat Parivartan Party, led by Bharatiya Janata Party rebel and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel, will contest the forthcoming assembly elections on the symbol of a cricket bat. In a major relief to the new entrant in the election fray, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday rejected BJP's complaint for disallowing GPP from using this symbol.
Describing Narendra Modi as 'propaganda-hungry', Gujarat Parivartan Party President Keshubhai Patel on Monday alleged that the chief minister observed 'Sadabhavna' fasts across the state and also wooed the Tatas to set up Nano project in Gujarat only to boost his image.
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