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The US strategy to strike the Taliban includes making use of the Northern Alliance, favoured by Russia and Iran and distrusted by Pakistan. In its military pact with the front, the US should keep in mind the future power equations in Afghanistan.

STATES: GUJARAT

Man Overboard

The BJP jettisons Keshubhai in a desperate bid to keep the party from sinking in the next assembly elections

By Uday Mahurkar

When senior RSS leaders approached Keshubhai Patel two months ago, advising him to radically reshuffle his ministry, the former chief minister was more blunt than usual. "There is no need for it," he had hollered, hoping to tell his advisers off. Tired of being told to go in for a change to lift what they perceived as his sagging image, he had insisted that his popularity, not to mention that of his government, was intact and that a reshuffle would only invite trouble.

Last week, however, when the Central leadership of the BJP demanded that he step down, Keshubhai, much to his dismay, discovered that his advisers had got the better of him. Blamed squarely for the party's debacle in the panchayat elections a year ago and the two bye-elections to the Sabarmati assembly seat and the Sabarkantha Lok Sabha constituency last month, he found himself being accused of making no amends despite repeated reminders. Said BJP General Secretary Madan Lal Khurana: "That even a ministerial reshuffle was not carried out after the party's electoral defeat last year was an indicator that something had to be done."

But although the diktat against Keshubhai was in the offing, the change of guard in Gujarat didn't prove easy. For one, the party leadership at the Centre and the state could not zero in on a suitable successor. The search for a chief ministerial candidate began as early as six months ago in close consultation with the RSS brass. While the central RSS leadership believed that the authoritative Narendra Modi, BJP national general secretary, would effectively arrest the party's downslide in Gujarat, the state unit of the RSS was not so sure. In fact, state RSS leaders openly criticised Modi for what they called his abrasive style of functioning. In the end, however, their counterparts at the Centre prevailed. And this came about in two swift stages: RSS Joint General Secretary Madandas Devi first turned around Gujarat BJP General Secretary Sanjay Joshi, an RSS nominee and a Modi critic till recently, leaving it to him to convince the others.

What followed was a coup of sorts, an advance move that neutralised Keshubhai's attempts to flex his muscles when the time came. Impenetrable as his sense of security was, the chief minister resisted efforts to dislodge him till the very end. Not even the stern messages from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani could convince him of the need for his removal. He raved and ranted about how he had been wronged and how his commendable work as chief minister had been heavily discounted. He requested the high command to invite his ministers and party functionaries to Delhi and swore that they would stand up for him. But when these leaders, handpicked by Keshubhai himself, were summoned by party bigwigs Jana Krishnamurthy, Kushabhau Thakre and Khurana, most of them let him down by following the directive to back Modi. Worse, even half-a-dozen MLAs, who faxed a message to Krishnamurthy expressing support for Keshubhai and claiming the support of 28 others, did a volte face.

Humiliated, Keshubhai went on the offensive. He threatened that if the demand for his resignation from chief ministership was not withdrawn, he would quit from the legislature and the party and would take political sanyas. The tantrums got him nowhere. Thakre and Khurana did some plain-speaking with him, urging him to step down gracefully. Modi, they assured him, would not hurt his political interests. With little choice, Keshubhai relented.

Talking to the media, he matter-of-factly proposed "Narendrabhai's" name for chief ministership. At one point, he could not stop himself from talking about his days with the Jan Sangh. There was no way he could harm the organisation, he vowed. An organisation for which he had "even swept floors". By the time the BJP Legislature Party met the next day, the sense of loss had given way to sarcasm. "Halley's comet might shine with its long tail but it isn't permanent," Keshubhai told fellow MLAs. "On the other hand the Pole Star is permanent." It took some time before the import of the caustic remark dawned on those in the hall: relegating Modi to a transient status, Keshubhai was saying that the party was above individuals.

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