AHMEDABAD: Narendra Modi is banking on his time-tested no-repeat formula in the upcoming assembly polls.
As he battles a decade of incumbency, the Gujarat CM has communicated to the top brass of his party that while he continues to enjoy crowd support, there is resentment against a large number of MLAs in their respective areas. Modi has been giving indications of dropping sitting MLAs for some time now.
At a recent party meeting held at Koba, he told senior colleagues that presiding deities keep on changing in keeping with festivals.
“We pray to Lord Ganesh during Ganesh Chaturthi and Goddess Amba during Navratri. This doesn’t mean that we lose faith in Ganeshji during Navratri or vice versa.
Elections are like a festival where the party’s interest is above any individual. Faces may change but our faith in party should not shake,” Modi told the elite group of leaders. The party think-tank may replacing about 60% of sitting legislators.
While Modi’s formula may have yielded good results in the past, this time around it may not be a cakewalk, especially with Keshubhai Patel offering an option to BJP dissidents.
Many BJP legislators, who fear an axe, have started building bridges with Patel for a ticket from Gujarat Parivartan Party, an outfit floated by the rebel leader to fight Modi.
The BJP has already categorised winnability in all assembly seats depending on the anti-incumbency against local legislators.
“The CM has told us to appease those who are left out and ensure that they do not create any trouble during elections,” said a senior BJP leader who was present at a meeting recently held in Ahmedabad.
It was during Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections in 2005 that Modi had shocked partymen by replacing 90% of candidates, leading to a landslide victory — AMC was controlled by Congress then. Modi did not stop here. He tried the same formula in civic body polls in Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar and got same results.
Again, he had changed 40% sitting MLAs in 2007 assembly polls and followed it up with a similar experiment in civic body polls in 2010. (Agencies)