Rebel bubble bursts for Cong | The losers

REBEL BUBBLE BURSTS: The Keshubhai factor was expected to make a dent in BJP, but that clearly did not work for Cong.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Gujarat BJP rebels threaten to join Congress
• Narendra Modi in win-win situation for next term
• Ex-Gujarat CM says goodbye to BJP, Modi

Keywords: Congress, Rebels

Rajkot (Gujarat): Former Gujarat chief minister, senior BJP leader and lead rebel against Narendra Modi, Keshubhai Patel put his entire political career of several decades on stake on this election.

His aim was to swing to the crucial Patel vote away from Modi and riding with him were other discontented Gujarat BJP leaders like Gordhan Zadhafia and Kanshi Ram Rana.

Such was the disenchantment against Modi that Keshubhai didn't even step out to vote in the election.

The Congress, looking at making a comeback in Gujarat, built its strategy around this rebellion, but the Modi juggernaut just crushed under it all threat from the rebels and the calculations of the Congress, which was depending on the rebels to burst Modi's bubble went horribly wrong with the BJP winning against all expectations.

Congress candidate from Rajkot, Kashmira Ben said, "This was a fight between social work and money power and unfortunately money has won."

The rebels had mainly focussed on the Saurashtra region which experienced non-implementation of development schemes and farmer suicides. It's also the region where Keshubhai is — or was — a revered leader among the Leuva Patels.

Keshubhai made his discord with Modi very public with an advertisement in the local papers that even accused Modi of being a terrorist. And even though there is no mention of Keshubhai in the ad, it was clear the ad had his approval.

Despite this full frontal assault, Modi's campaign managed to convince the voters, making a virtual sweep in Saurashtra.

State Finance Minister, Vajubhai Wala who was also the winning BJP candidate from Rajkot, said, "Congress always says it is winning, but it is what the public is saying that will matter in the end."

After Modi's landslide victory, Keshubhai released a statement congratulating Modi, but avoided coming in front of the hundreds of cameras crawling across Gujarat. And like him, most of the rebels went underground.

Saurashtra is the big story of 2007 Gujarat Assembly polls. The Keshubhai factor was expected to make a dent in BJP, but that clearly did not work for the Congress. Though BJP has approximately the same number of seats as it had in 2002, the party has done much better this time in Saurashtra.