After Gujarat Chief Minister bamboozled BJP high command to oust Sanjay Joshi from the party national executive, Joshi supporters seems to be hitting back. On Tuesday, banners in favour of Joshi were seen in Ahmedabad and Delhi .
The posters took a dig at Modi stating that “people with small heart can’t aspire to grow big”. The two have been on collision course for long. Modi had threatened that if Joshi attends party executive meet, he will boycott it. The party national president, Nitin Gadkari, succumbed to Modi's pressure and asked Joshi to resign from the executive though on record he maintained that he did it on his own.
Though nobody has claimed responsibility for putting up the posters, sources said that elements within the Sangh Parivar, who were pro-Joshi, could have put them up. Former BJP leaders like Gordhan Zadafiya, who have been trying to build up a anti-Modi lobby centering around former CM Keshubhai Patel, denied the dissidents role in the posters though he took a subtle dig at Modi and the BJP. “We haven’t put up these posters. Buit these posters clearly reflect the sentiments within the BJP...Whosoever has done it, we appreciate them since the sentiments reflected in the posters are true,’’ Zadafiya said. The former Home minister had floated his own party Maha Gujarat Janata party some years back after he fell out with Modi.
The state BJP leaders refused to comment on the issue though off record senior party leaders maintained that the posters could have been put up by some mischievous elements.
“These are anonymous posters and are insignificant. We don’t want to react to them,’’ said a senior party leader. The Congress on the other hand was trying to distance itself from the controversy. “Its BJP internal matter,’’ commented the Gujarat congress chief Arjun Modhvadiya.