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The Bharatiya Janata Party will take a decision on the future of Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel in a day or two, a top BJP leader said on Wednesday.
Patel, who has escaped dismissal on at least two earlier occasions in his controversial tenure of a little more than three years, may find it tough to hold on to the job for long, according to BJP politicians who attended a series of meetings in New Delhi during the day.
BJP president K Jana Krishnamurthy told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the evening: "The question of a change of leadership in Gujarat will be decided in a day or two."
Patel was summoned to Delhi to meet Vajpayee, Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, BJP general secretary Madanlal Khurana and other senior politicians after the BJP's stunning defeat in last week's by-elections to one Lok Sabha and one assembly seat in Gujarat.
The BJP lost the Sabarmati assembly seat, once its bastion and part of Advani's Lok Sabha constituency, to the Congress and failed to wrest the Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat from it.
After a prolonged meeting with Patel at the home minister's residence, Khurana said: "We discussed the state of affairs in Gujarat and the recent polls. A major decision will be taken soon."
Kashiram Rana, a leader representing the socially backward classes, is being touted as an alternative.
Since he assumed charge in 1998, Patel has fought off accusations of ineptitude and an inability to project a good image.
By the time the state administration had grappled with the three disasters that hit Gujarat -- the cyclone of June 1999, the earthquake of January 2000 and the drought this year -- Patel's seat had started wobbling quite badly.
Speculation of his removal was rife after the killer quake hit Gujarat on January 26, 2000, but the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP's ideological parent, came to his rescue. Patel is known to be close to the Sangh.
The RSS also bailed him out when the BJP was reportedly set to take action after the party lost the municipal elections in Gujarat early this year.
Mismanagement of the quake relief efforts had worsened Patel's already poor image, which was reflected in the BJP's humiliating defeat in those elections.
Indo-Asian News Service
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