After founder president of Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) Keshubhai Patel’s son Bharat joined the BJP and buzz is around that Keshubhai may also return to the BJP fold, questions are being raised on the fate of the GPP.
However, the senior leaders of GPP are confident that the former Gujarat Chief Minister would never leave them and the party’s game plan for upcoming lok Sabha election in 2014 would remain unchanged.
Talking to The Pioneer, GPP general secretary Gordhan Zadaphia said that such things happen in politics citing the case of Madhavrao Scindia and Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia who were in different political organisation despite coming from the same family. According to Zadaphia, Keshubhai would never leave the GPP and he will continue to remain inspiration for GPP workers. On probability of Keshubhai’s return to the BJP, Zadaphia maintained that he is confident that the veteran leader would not let him and other GPP workers down.
When asked about fielding GPP candidates from all the lok Sabha constituencies, he said that his party may join hands with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Adami Party (AAP) as they are also looking for regional parties having similar ideology — neither with the Congress nor with the BJP. He claimed that he had informal meetings with Kejariwal before the Delhi elections and he is in touch with the AAP leader.
On possible merger of GPP in BJP following Keshubhai’s youngest son’s re-entry in BJP, another senior leader and former Gujarat Chief Minister Suresh Mehta said that Keshubhai would never return to BJP and GPP would continue to project itself as Gujarat-based political party and stick to its agenda.
Out of the four sons and a daughter, the youngest son Bharat is seen political heir former BJP heavyweight Patel. His eldest son Jagdish runs an engineering company in Ahmedabad, the second son Pravin is settled in the US. His third son Mahesh is a builder in Rajkot, his daughter Sonal is a practicing doctor in Ahmedabad.
A senior GPP leader requesting anonymity said that, in view of recent political development there are chances that Keshubhai may remain inactive in the upcoming lok Sabha elections. A BJP leader, who played an important role in roping in Bharat Patel in BJP’s fold also opined the same and said that Keshubhai allowed his son to join BJP in a party, which would give him better political career than his own political outfit. “With this, his intensions are clear that, he would rather prefer to retire from active politics, not only because of his son, but also looking to his age and health condition,” he added.