After the Narendra Modi-Sanjay Joshi poster war in Ahmedabad and Delhi, more anti-Modi posters have sprouted in Ahmedabad and Rajkot, reminding the Gujarat Chief Minister of his “Raj dharma”.
The posters were seen late on Thursday night on some main roads in the city and Rajkot, the political capital of the Saurashtra region, where the two-day State Bharatiya Janata Party executive will be meeting from Saturday, preceded by a meeting of the office-bearers the previous day to finalise various resolutions and other agenda to be taken up at the meeting.
Mr. Modi will be attending the executive meeting because of its special significance this time as it is due to take stock of the preparations for the Assembly elections due later this year. The sudden appearance of the posters was significant and they were promptly pulled down by the concerned municipal corporation departments.
Like in the Modi-Joshi war, the new posters did not name the Chief Minister but the symbolic slogan was clear: “Perform Raj Dharma, Praja Dharma and party Dharma,” quoting from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's famous advice to Mr. Modi after the 2002 communal riots to “perform raj dharma and praja dharma”. Added to it was the ‘party dharma' with clear reference to Mr. Modi's insistence on Mr. Joshi's resignation as a precondition to his attending the Mumbai national executive.
The BJP sources in the State also claimed that in addition to Mr. Joshi's resignation, Mr. Modi had also demanded action against the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, but that was not acceptable to the national president of the party and Mr. Patel soon retorted, publicly describing the Modi establishment in the State as that of “Pindaris and thugs”. Significantly, Rajkot is the hometown of Mr. Patel, but he is not attending the executive meeting.
