Rana may continue as BJP chief until Lok Sabha polls

By Kuleen Kapoor

Ahmedabad, Feb. 19: Despite announcements to the contrary, state BJP chief Rajendrasinh Rana, who has already finished his two terms, will continue on the post till the Lok Sabha elections are over. Those closely involved with the leadership issue confided that the matter is being deliberately delayed to keep all contenders and groups guessing and that Rana will take the party into the elections.

It may be recalled that the central party observers visited the state nearly a month back but no formal announcement has been made yet. With General Elections imminent in couple of months, various sections of the media have been flashing different names of frontrunners: Purshottam Rupala, who lost in the last Assembly election from Amreli; state revenue minister Kaushik Patel and Dilip Sanghani, member of Parliament from Amreli.

One of the contenders for the post felt that the delay was intentional so that all the groups could be kept happy till the parliamentary elections. "Party is using the contenders by just naming them and not picking one as it might cause infighting within the party, which could affect the votes."

Agreed another contender, "Chunav se pahle kuch nai hoga (New state BJP chief will be appointed only after the elections)." He believed that Rajendrasinh Rana will lead the party into the coming parliamentary elections.

However, a top BJP leader said the issue will be resolved soon and the new state BJP chief will be named and elected "within a week". The party seems to be playing with two ideas: to name a candidate soon, just as the Congress did by naming B.K. Gadhvi as the GPCC chief or to delay the issue and keep various groups together until after the elections are over.

When asked to comment on the issue, Rana quipped, "That’s for the high command to decide. You better ask Venkaiah Naidu, not me."

Reliable sources in the party said besides the looming elections the pending election of district unit presidents is also responsible for delay in naming the new state chief. Whatever the reason, the BJP is not willing to take rash decisions in Gujarat.