Nistula Hebbar: Keshubhai back with a vengeance

BACKSTAGE

He arrived at Powai's Renaissance Hotel for the BJP National Executive on a wheelchair. But if you'd asked former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel if he was down on his knees yet, the answer would have been an emphatic no.

It has been three years since Patel was removed from the chief ministership of Gujarat after what the BJP termed "sheer irregularities" in the handling of relief work after the Gujarat earthquake. His replacement was then BJP General Secretary Narendra Modi, a man who had been groomed in politics by Patel himself.

Best friends make the worst enemies and not a day has passed since then that Patel has not fomented trouble for Modi, so much so that the present chief minister seems set to lose his chair because of a near-revolt against him in the party. The doughty fighter will have his revenge.

Patel has always been a father figure of sorts for the Gujarat BJP. Belonging to the dominant Patel caste in Rajkot, which comprises 18 per cent of the voters in Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel was an enthusiastic member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Jan Sangh in the state. His political leanings were clear from the beginning and, unlike others, he never flirted with the Congress.

He first fought the Gujarat Assembly elections in 1975 and 20 years later, in 1995, became chief minister of the state for the first time. Along the way he groomed several state leaders in the BJP.

Among them was Modi, then a middle-ranking OBC leader, whom Patel made Sangathan Mahamantri (Organisational general secretary) of the Gujarat unit of the BJP. That is the most significant post in the BJP since the strength of the party is said to derive form the organisational set up.

Patel and Modi took on several political rivals together. When Shankarsinh Vaghela raised questions over Patel's leadership in 1995, many privately held the view that he was more upset with Modi than Patel.

Patel's government fell with Vaghela's help in 1995, but he won a second term in 1998. By then, he had learnt some valuable lessons: In a bid to pre-empt new rivalries, Patel packed off Modi to the central BJP office as a general secretary in charge of MP. The sweetheart deal was that Modi would bail out Patel in case of any problems with the central leadership.

Things were fine for Patel, despite the fact that moderates like state Tourism Minister Suresh Mehta were humiliated when it came to choosing office bearers for the Kachchh region from where he hails. Then came the Gujarat quake of January 2001.

Patel's failure in organising the mammoth relief work that was required at the time and his alleged proximity to certain builders who built the paper-thin skyscrapers that folded up in the tremors proved to be his downfall.

This time, it was his own protege Modi who not only instigated his removal, but also presented himself as the successor. The Keshubhai chapter in BJP appeared to be at a close in 2002, when Modi romped home in the wake of the Gujarat riots. Modi was the darling of the Hindutva brigade and Patel seemed to have become a distant memory.

But Patel never let up his campaign against Modi. The poor performance of the party in Gujarat during the Lok Sabha polls "" the party won just 12 of the state's 26 seats "" was immediately followed by a public tirade against Modi's authoritarian ways by MLA Purushottam Solanki. The RSS and the VHP both appeared to be upset by Modi's arrogance as well.

Despite the fact that removing Modi appears to the BJP as a tacit acknowledgement of guilt over the Gujarat riots, there is widespread agreement that Modi will have to be eased out of the chief minister's chair.

When that happens, Patel will be avenged. After all it has been his campaign against Modi that has brought things to this pass. Like all good teachers, Patel taught Modi everything except that one last trick that ensures survival.