Gandhinagar, Aug 5 : With an eye on the forthcoming Gujarat assembly polls, former chief minister Keshubhai Patel and former Union Minister Kashiram Rana quit the BJP on Saturday and are expected to announce a new party today.
Both the leaders sent their resignations to BJP president Nitin Gadkari.
Patel and Rana said they were quitting because BJP in Gujarat under Narendra Modi "has lost its identity and moved far away from its ideologies and principles towards personal glorification, reducation the party organisation to an obscure corner".
“We are quitting the parent organisation that we both served for nearly six decades with a heavy heart. In reality, we are not quitting the BJP, but rather we will find the ‘real BJP' ", they said.
Keshubhai Patel has been the bete noire of Narendra Modi for the last several years, and had gone even to the extent of comparing him with Hitler.
Patel met the BJP top leaders recently to press for the removal of Modi from the state leadership, but the high command cold shouldered his plea.
Patel is considered the most powerful leader of the Patel community in Guarat, and his exit may affect the electoral balance of the BJP in the coming elections, experts say.
Another former Chief Minister, Suresh Mehta, also quit the BJP, to register his protest against Modi's style of functioning. Patel has also received the support of Gordhan Jhadafiya, who was minister of state for Home during the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.
Jhadafiya had set up the Mahagujarat Janata Party, and he has said he would be merging his party with Keshubhai's new party.
