Ahmedabad, 23 December 2013

The question answer round of a press conference held in Ahmedabad today to announce Keshubhai son Bharat Patel’s induction to party was light and vibrant.

BJP state president RC Faldu and senior leader and former Rajya Sabha member Surendra Patel(kaka) both were stunned when asked a pointed question by a journalist that who from both of them would become Chief Minister after Narendra Modi leaves Gujarat!

None of these two organization-side leaders was quickly able to react to the question. Surendrakaka doesn’t come on mic on such occasion and sits in corner, so he was not expected to reply. Faldu completely diverted the topic. After some time, when reporters reminded them to give answer, both were again clueless.

Then party leader Vijay Rupani took mic in his hand and said, “Gujarat has progressed under the Narendra Modi government even after so many hurdles created by hostile central government. Imagine when Modi himself will become PM, how good it would be for Gujarat. Even if Modiji moves to centre, he will continue to provide guidence, and therefore the question of who would replace him in Gujarat is not very important. Narendrabhai will be there(to guide and take care, whoever the CM here).”

Thanks to Rupani, Faldu found track to reply the question and took mic in his hand to tell a small group of Gujarati media persons that every person in Gujarat would like to see Narendrabhai as PM. Faldu gave example of Morarji Desai – the last Gujarati who could become PM.

When asked how many seats Gujarat BJP intends to win in upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Vijay Rupani confidently replied “26”. Faldu too repeated it.