Modi has his way,Gadkari gets Joshi to quit national executive

Following Joshis resignation,the Gujarat chief minister arrived this afternoon to attend the party meet

BJP president Nitin Gadkari gave in to Narendra Modi today,getting Modis bete noire Sanjay Joshi to resign from the national executive,and thereby securing a second term for himself as party chief.

Following Joshis resignation,the Gujarat chief minister arrived this afternoon to attend the party meet. In the morning,Gadkari told reporters that he had spoken to Modi,and the small controversy was now over.

Joshi showing largeheartedness offered to quit the national executive. He said there should be no problem because of him,and wished the party well, Gadkari said.

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Gadkaris bid to buy peace is being viewed as a setback to the RSS,on whose bidding he was said to have rehabilitated Joshi. An angry Modi had stayed away from the last national executive meet in Delhi and the poll campaign in UP.

Sources said the BJP brass went into a huddle last night after indications that the dozen-odd delegates from Gujarat would boycott the meet along with Modi. There were reports that Modi had threatened to quit the national executive if Joshi stayed on.

Gadkari then extracted Joshis resignation,while Arun Jaitley reportedly rang Modi to persuade him to come to Mumbai.

Modi never forgave Joshi for joining hands with Keshubhai Patel to destabilise his government after he became chief minister for the first time in 2001. After a CD purportedly involving Joshi surfaced in 2005,Joshi had to resign his powerful post of general secretary (organisation). The controversy,allegedly engineered to finish Joshi politically,kept him in oblivion until he worked his way back into the RSSs good books,and was rehabilitated during the UP elections.

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Gadkari has had to back off earlier from controversial decisions involving Babu Singh Kushwaha in UP and Anshuman Mishra in Jharkhand. Party sources said former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa was likely to join the meet tomorrow.