GANDHINAGAR, NOVEMBER 12: Harin Pathak and Ashok Bhatt were perennial rivals within the BJP in Ahmedabad - it was their common political playground. On Saturday night, ironically, they put their heads together at Pathak's residence inDelhi over the same charge of murder and conspiracy that they face. Then, both decided to put in their papers. Pathak went to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee while Bhatt called up Keshubhai Patel in Gandhinagar to tell him he was quitting. He submitted his resignation to the CM today.Pathak, who began his career as a school teacher in Ahmedabad's Nalanda High School and made his way up as an aggressive municipal councillor before being elevated as a Union Minister, had successfully negotiated many crises in the past. The latest has hit him in the face.There was a time when Harin Pathak was known as `Chhote Vajpayee' in Gujarat for his oratorical skills. This was one of the factors, besides his knack for PR, that boosted his political career. If he could earn the goodwill of Vajpayee, he also had an excellent rapport with L.K. Advani. Pathak was one of the few political leaders from Gujarat who participated in the kar sewa in Ayodhya.Primarily a rabble-rouser and a careerist, Pathak did not have a criminal record except for the lone case which has led to his ouster from the Centre. Unlike some other BJP leaders, he is also not known to have links with the underworld. As an Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation councillor from the late seventies till the late eighties when he entered the Lok Sabha from the city, Pathak has been a hard worker and knew party workers by their names.Known to be a survivor, Pathak even managed to scrape through the October 1995 crisis that led to the fall of the Keshubhai Patel government. His proximity to the BJP's bete noire, Shankersinh Vaghela, had put him in a tight spot when the split in the party's state unit came about. He remained a suspect for long in the eyes of the hardliners.Even in the last parliamentary elections, a vicious whisper campaign had been launched against him in the party. He, however, managed to weather the storm and got inducted into the Union Council of Ministers, thanks largely to his affable nature and uncanny ability to win friends and influence people.Ashok Bhatt, his co-accused in the case, appears to be equally down-to-earth and media savvy and is credited with a strong survival instinct. He has friends in the Congress too. This is why except for a demand by GPCC president C.D. Patel and Leader of the Opposition Amarsinh Chaudhary that Bhatt should quit, there weren't many in Gujarat who sought his resignation.Ironically, Bhatt had to resign largely because Pathak came under pressure for being a part of the NDA Government that faces a Parliament session shortly.Bhatt has of late been involved in a string of unsavoury controversies - right from the mess-up at the function to mark the re-commencement of work on the Narmada dam (where he was supposed to make the arrangements and inadequate food and drinking water led to ugly protests by people who had come from all over the state) to the showdown with the Saurashtra Oil Millers Association over widespread corruption among civil supplies officials. Bhatt also held the Civil Supplies portfolio and the millers' body had demanded his resignation.In between there was a face-off with his ministerial colleague, Revenue Minister Vajubhai Vala, after the latter transferred six revenue officers who were on deputation with the Civil Supplies Department without even informing Bhatt.
