Keshubhai Patel likely to be projected as CM candidate against Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: Rebel BJP leader Keshubhai Patel, who announced the formation of a new party to take on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming assembly polls, is likely to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the anti-Modi outfit and is hoping that a large number of dissident BJP workers will crossover.

"Keshubhai Patel is likely to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the new party that he has announced to form," a leader of anti-Modi group said.

The party will contest all the 182 assembly seats and is likely to have a major impact on seats having Patel population in Saurashtra and Kutch and also in Surat in South Gujarat.

The chief ministerial candidate for BJP is Modi while the principal Opposition party --Congress-- has not yet made up their mind on projecting anybody for the hot seat.

83-year-old Patel, who has come out in open against Modi in recent times is considered to be very powerful in numerically strong Patel community of the state which has been the backbone of BJP's undefeated stint of power in Gujarat for the last 15 years.

Modi would have never imagined that he would be facing such a strong rebellion from within the party and constituents of the Sangh Parivar in the run up to 2012 elections, sources close to Patel said.

For Modi, it is very important to win the state elections of 2012 with a huge margin to have a legitimate claim of being a prime ministerial candidate of his party for the 2014 elections and but for that he will first have to sail through this big rebellion ahead of the state elections led by Keshubhai.