Sanjay Joshi, grass root level
workers of Gujrat BJP since 1988, was targeted by Modi’s wrath. In 2001, BJP
central leadership removed Keshu Bhai Patel and allowed Narendra Modi become
chief minister of Gujrat. Since then Joshi has been the focus of several Modi’s
actions.
The whole story of the rift
starts when Modi was shunted out after a revolt by Shankersinh Vaghela, the BJP
leader, and BJP won in the subsequent assembly election in 1998. Joshi became
the general secretary of BJP in Gujrat. It seems Modi felt that Sanjay Joshi
was helpful in his expulsion from Gujrat, but truth
is that was not the case. Joshi, meanwhile, had won hearts in the BJP and RSS,
in Gujarat.
As
for Joshi, it was the Mumbai executive of the party in December 2005, that saw
him fall from grace and the power structure in the party, when a CD surfaced in
the middle of the executive meeting, which showed him in a compromising
position with a woman, but RSS knew that the CD was doctored and fabricated.
Joshi was forced to
resign in May 2012 when Modi threatened to boycott the BJP national meet if he
was not removed. Joshi was also removed from the BJP national executive to
placate Modi. He soon quit all other party posts.
Some BJP leaders in Delhi had faced the heat
of party’s top leadership for greeting Joshi on his birthday in April last
year.
In September last
year a blood donation camp held in Varanasi where Mr Joshi had been invited,
but the camp had to be cancelled following pressure from senior leaders who
themselves had maintained distance from the event.
After the
appearance of pro-Joshi posters in Kanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Delhi, it was
the presence of a fairly large crowd at functions attended by Joshi in May 2015
that had alarmed the red bells ringing in the party leadership.
Anxiety prevails
among senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh over the
growing forays of senior party leader Sanjay Joshi into the state.
A program on birth
anniversary of Swami Vivekanand was organized by a group of RSS volunteers and
BJP workers in Lucknow on Tuesday at Ramadheen Singh inter college Nirala
Nagar. Mr Sanjay Joshi, sidelined BJP leader, was invited as a chief guest even
as top BJP leaders in the state continue to maintain their distance from him.
RSS’s Lucknow
Vibhag Sanghchalak Jai Krishn Sinha presided over the event organized by Deen
Dayal Sewa Pratisthan, a unit of RSS volunteers.
Mr Joshi,
addressing a seminar on ‘Nationalism and Indian Culture, Basics of culture
equality’, said, “Let's speak ourselves, ‘we Indian' — we can reach the extent
of equality.”
He further said, “We
talk about nationalism, but the racial diversity in India is at the pit level.
The voters during the polling prefer to vote the candidates of identical
caste.”
