Dhakor (Gujarat), Nov 11: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today launched the ninth leg of his controversial Gaurav Yatra in this Congress bastion blaming the Sonia Gandhi-led party for the Godhra incident and accusing the Nehru family of "ignoring" Sardar Patel. Without using the term "reaction", which had drawn widespread criticism, Modi told a public gathering en route to Godhra, "but for Godhra, Gujarat (communal violence) would not have happened."

"If Congress keeps protecting the perpetrators of the Godhra carnage, Gujarat will never return to normalcy," he said. Modi, who launched his poll campaign on October 31 from Karamsad, Sardar Patel's birth place, sought to appropriate the iron man's legacy by attacking the Congress for changing at the last minute its poll campaign launch venue today from Karamsad to Anand and alleged that it was done at the behest of the party top brass.

"Not a single member of the Nehru-Gandhi family has paid tributes to Patel at Karamsad in the past 50 years. We will force them to do so," he said to loud cheers from the audience which included a large number of saints belonging to the Swaminarayan Sect. Bureau Report