Even as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's proposed fast for peace, harmony and unity in the state picks up steam, senior Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leaders like LK Advani and Arun Jaitley have decided to visit Ahmedabad.According to party sources, with senior party leaders attending Modi's fast on Saturday the visit may give boost to the CM's move.
Among other leaders visiting Ahmedabad during Modi's three-day fast include the likes of Ravi Shanker Prasad, chief spokesperson and general secretary, BJP, and Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP spokesperson and MP, sources said.
However, opposition party in the state, Congress, has been criticising Modi's move to project himself as a "messiah" of the minorities.
"The Gujarat chief minister, interpreting the Supreme Court order as he has been declared innocent, has announced a three-day fast. Now, he wants to project himself as a messiah of minorities by undertaking such a fast and wants to show that he is their protector," Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela told reporters here. Modi's announcement of a three-day fast comes at a time when recently the Supreme Court verdict asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to file a final report or a chargesheet to be heard in a lower court in Gujarat in the Gulbarga Society riots case.
On its part, to counter Modi's fast from September 17, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) leaders Shaktisinh Vaghela and Arjun Modhvadia have also announced a parallel fast at the same time.
"If there is a justifiable cause for fast by the chief minister, we can understand it. But he is saying that this fast is for sadbhavna. But his fast is based on farce, falsehood and corruption. Whereas Our fast will be held on the footpath outside Sabarmati Ashram and will be a fast of the common man but the fast of Modi will be a five star air-conditioned fast as he is planning to do it in the convention hall of Gujarat University," Vaghela said.