Cross-voting: BJP suspends five MLAs in Gujarat

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh today suspended five MLAs of the party in Gujarat.

The MLAs, who are supporters of senior party leader Keshubhai Patel, will not get the BJP nomination in the forthcoming Assembly elections and are likely to go to the Congress for nomination.

The MLAs are Dhirubhai Gajera, Gordhan Jhadaphia, Balubhai Tanti, Becharbhai Bhadani and Bavkubhai Undhad. Several of them had voted in favour of UPA presidential nominee Pratibha Patil in the recent election. However, not all who cross-voted have been suspended.

This spells bad news for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, for it is a certainty now that the BJP will not be able to retain its tally of 130 in the 182-member Assembly. The BJP has 130 MLAs, Congress 48 and Independents and Janata Dal (United) two each.

So far, the dissidents had been working under the leadership of leaders like former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, former Union Textile Minister Kashiram Rana and former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta.

But now, as their revolt has spilled out into the open, the party has had to take visible action. Patel and Rana have not openly supported the dissidents. MLA from Surat, Dhirubhai Gajera, had in May written a letter to Rajnath Singh accusing Modi of adopting a "dictatorial" approach.

Bechar Bhadani was slapped with a show-cause notice earlier this year. He has made a public statement that the state BJP is on the verge of ruination because of Modi's anti-democratic behaviour. He has in the past challenged the CM to fight election against him in his constituency of Lathi.

MP Vallabh Kathiria and Gordhan Jhadafiya have been organising meetings of the influential Patel community at each taluka headquarters of Saurashtra, telling farmers how the Modi government has failed to take care of their interests. They are likely to go to Kutch, North Gujarat and Central Gujarat.

Four dissident MLAs have complained to Governor Naval Kishore Sharma that their phones are being tapped by the Modi government.

Five-time Jamnagar BJP MP Chandresh Patel has resigned from the BJP co-ordination committee by saying he is opposed to Narendra Modi. Another BJP MP, Soma Gandabhai Patel, has termed Modi as the "biggest threat to democracy".

Most of the rebel MLAs had been absent when Advani and Sushma Swaraj, who managed the campaign for Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's bid for presidency, had visited Gandhinagar to seek the support of BJP lawmakers for the NDA-backed Independent candidate.