Ahmedabad: Opposition parties in Gujarat led by Congress on Sunday dismissed Chief Minister Narendra Modi`s anointment as BJP`s poll panel head as a "divisive politics" that sidelined party patriarch L K Advani.
"The post of poll panel head of a party is not that significant as it`s been hyped in the case of Narendra Modi, and still he had to resort to divisive politics to get this post by pushing aside his own mentor Lal Krishna Advani," said state Congress President Arjun Modhwadia.
Accusing Modi of cutting out his former mentor, he said that Modi did the same with senior leaders of his party in Gujarat.
"In Gujarat, Modi has pushed and sidelined his own party`s pioneer leaders like Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta, Kanshiram Rana, A K Patel, Sanjay Joshi and Haren Pandya in the past," Modhwadia said, adding that Modi has taken this particular model of sidelining leaders to national level.
Reacting to the development, the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP), led by the former chief minister and once a BJP stalwart Keshubhai Patel, said that Modi`s elevation would widen the `rift` in BJP as the party leadership took the decision under pressure.
"Modi`s appointment as the head of BJP`s campaign committee will widen the rift within that party as it clearly showed that BJP president has taken this decision under immense pressure," said GPP general secretary Gordhan Zadafia who had been a minister under Modi in 2002 before quitting BJP to form his own party.
"This is not unanimous decision and in coming days rift in the party will become much wider," he said. Zadafia said that the coming days will be problematic for Modi with a view of the course of investigations into various fake encounter cases in Gujarat.
"The political and legal scenario is going to change very soon. On the legal front, investigations into encounter cases are heading in a direction which will spell trouble for him (Modi)," he said.
On the celebrations by BJP workers and leadership over Modi`s elevation, Zadafia said "it is ridiculous to celebrate on someone being appointed as head of poll committee. This is like a couple is about to get engaged and people start announcing names for their yet-to-be-born child".
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which blasted Modi in the past on various issues, remained cold to the development.
"This is an internal issue and decision of BJP. We don`t have any opinion on it," International General Secretary of VHP Pravin Togadia said.
"For us an individual or a party is least important but ideology and fulfilment of aspirations of Hindu society which wants a public promise from political party to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, a common civil code and removal of Article 370," Togadia said.
PTI
