Ahmedabad:
Jaswant Singh has already taken Naredra Modi to court for banning his book in Gujarat.
The legal trouble could be a minor headache for Modi. At stake in his state: 7 assembly seats that will vote soon. All of them packed with Patel voters. " The Sardar is a towering personality, particularly for Gujarat, and the party will try to cash in on this controversy," comments Dinesh Shukl, Political Analyst
"The Chhote Sardar" is what the BJP likes to call Modi. In the general elections, and then in the Junagadh Municipality polls, the BJP under-performed. Analysts the Patel issue, in the form of Jaswant Singh's book, is a windfall for a politician desperate for a pick-me-up.
Not true, retort all Modi's men. "Most of the seats are with the Congress. So we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We are confident we can make inroads, but we don't want to make Sardar an issue," says Jaynarayan Vyas, Gujarat Health Minister .
Those blushing denials amount to little, given that Gujarat is the only BJP-governed state to ban Jaswant Singh's book. And now, Modi has to see if his gamble pays off.