Ahmedabad:
Just days after posters had appeared overnight in praise of Sanjay Joshi, a new set of mystery posters surfaced today in Ahmedabad with thinly disguised censorship of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the theme.
These posters, now removed, suggested that leaders should abide by "raj dharma", the party's dharma and should work for the people. The dig at Mr Modi was oblique, but unmistakable. On Tuesday, posters praising Mr Modi's bete noir Sanjay Joshi had been pasted, saying those with narrow minds could not be big leaders. Nobody has claimed responsibility for either set of posters, but for the BJP, the writing is clearly on the wall in election-bound Gujarat.
The party is blue in the face denying that there is trouble in Mr Modi's backyard, but these posters only underscore the growing chasm in the party's ranks in his state. Former Chief Minister and the man whom Mr Modi had dethroned a decade ago, Keshubhai Patel, has been very active, meeting leaders like Gordhan Zadaphia and Suresh Mehta, former BJP leaders who left the party in the Modi years. All of these leaders are openly critical of what they call Mr Modi's autocratic style of functioning and their meetings are designed to convey their growing impatience with Mr Modi's leadership.
Sources say BJP leaders are privately worried that the party may split in Gujarat, which will vote for its next government later this year.
His forcing Sanjay Joshi to resign last month seems to have opened the floodgates for anti-Narendra-Modi sentiments that many in the party seemed to have kept repressed for long. Mr Joshi, re-inducted into the party only six months ago, was forced to resign last month when Mr Modi refused to attend a meeting of senior BJP leaders in Mumbai till Mr Joshi resigned from the party's national executive. Within hours of that happening, Mr Modi altered his itinerary to fly into Mumbai where he was given a hero's welcome by party workers.
A recent editorial in the BJP magazine, the Kamal Sandesh, offered a harsh assessment of Mr Modi. Without naming him, the article warned that no leader should consider himself or herself bigger than the party. It also said, "People who attain heights should raise the level of their thoughts...it's been seen, people who attain heights glare down at people below them." The reference to Mr Modi was apparent.
Today, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader, who is also an RSS man, has been quoted as saying that asking Mr Joshi to resign was wrong.