Asked about Modi's style of functioning, often described as autocratic by his detractors, Nanavati said, “If it was so, people would not have stood solidly behind him all these years.”
“The masses are with BJP and Modi. Look what happened to Shankar Singh Vaghela after he quit BJP. Keshubhai Patel and his party will meet the same fate,” he claimed.
Modi is also facing criticism for his handling of law and order with his right hand man and former minister Amit Shah facing trial for allegedly plotting the cold blooded murder of gangsters Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati.
Several other fake encounters are also under judicial scrutiny. However, Modi who has been successful in warding off any major communal conflagration since the 2002 riots, claims his detractors were spreading canards to stall development.
Close watchers of the election scene also feel lack of clarity on who would become Chief Minister in the “highly improbable” event of Congress coming to power is also working to BJP's advantage.
Apart from Shankar Singh Vaghela, a former BJP Chief Minister, who heads Congress'election campaign committee, state party chief Arjun Modhwadia and leader of the opposition Shaktisinh Gohil, besides Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel are among those being named as possible contenders.
