GANDHINAGAR, NOV 24: The simmering discontent within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Keshubhai Patel Ministry has come out in the open, with a group of dissident leaders convening a meeting of as many as 60 party MLAs in Gandhinagar in the first week of December to vent their grievances.The meeting, which was scheduled to be held at the Conference Hall of the Gujarat State Sugar Cooperatives' Federation (GSSCF) on Sunday, has been postponed apparently following pressure by the State party leadership. A close associate of Industries Minister Suresh Mehta and North Gujarat MLA Arvind Patel, on whose name the hall was booked, told The Indian Express that the meeting had been postponed to the first week of December.He denied the meeting ``was against any individual or group of individuals,'' and claimed that it had been convened to strengthen the party in the State after its debacle in the recent civic elections. Patel said there was no dissident activity and even State BJP President Rajendrasinh Rana and Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel would be invited to attend it.While Patel refused any further discussion on the issue, party sources stated that 60 MLAs, including Patel from Saurashtra and North Gujarat, besides former ministers, were likely to attend the meeting, which is expected to discuss the discontent in the party's ranks over the style of functioning of the leadership and increasing RSS interference in party affairs.It will also take up the frustration among MLAs because of the ``arrogant and discriminatory attitude of the Chief Minister and his close ministerial colleagues'', and his ``stubbornness'' against making changes in the government after the poll debacle.The dissidence has got accentuated after national BJP General Secretary and Keshubhai's bete noire Narendra Modi has started making regular visits to the state after a long gap. Modi, who has been put in charge of party organisation at the national level, last week inaugurated a meeting of state cooperatives and made a remark that the cooperative sector could churn out able leaders to navigate the party in Gujarat. Modi also attended an RSS workshop in Ahmedabad, where he was accompanied by Governor Sundar Singh Bhandari, himself a senior RSS leader.Several former BJP ministers, including Purshottam Rupala, Arvind Patel and I K Jadeja, all close associates of Suresh Mehta, were hoping to be inducted in the Keshubhai Patel Cabinet after the party's poll debacle. There was a strong rumour in the party circles and government that the Chief Minister might go in for a reshuffle-cum-expansion of his Cabinet, but Keshubhai has been maintaining the status quo.Interestingly, Water Supply Minister Narottam Patel, who had publicly vented his ire against the state leadership after the poll debacle, on Thursday told reporters that the Sunday meeting had been postponed and that, ``We will tell you when the meeting will be held. The meeting is meant to strengthen the party in the State.'' He parried other questions on the issue.Patel's indication of his being with the dissidents has come less than a week after his mentor, Union Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana, told the press in Rajkot that the Hajuria-Khajuria divide still existed within the party and this was because of the attitude of the Hajuria (Keshubhai Patel) group.Rana had even stated that a four-member Central team was expected to visit Gujarat soon to find out reasons for the BJP's poor poll performance. They would also hear the complaints of party members and MLAs. Corroborating this, a senior leader representing the moderate group in the party said the four-member committee would visit 16 districts during their stay of four days. One member each would cover four districts.
