Jaitley meets Keshubhai Patel

Ahmedabad, Sept 3 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and Party's Gujarat Assembly election affairs in-charge, Arun Jaitley, in an apparent bid to end the 'cold war' between Narendra Modi and former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, had a long meeting with the latter at his residence here today.

The closed-door meeting between the two that lasted nearly 90 minutes, was described by the central leader as part of the party's routine strategy to meet everyone in view of forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat.

In the recent past, the dissident activities, with hidden support from Keshubhai, former union minister Kashiram Rana and former Chief Minister Sureshchandra Mehta and other senior leaders, against Mr Modi were full throttle with all of them demanding nothing less than Modi's ouster.

Political observers said the meeting between Mr Jaitley and Mr Patel did not break the ice. They said Omprakash Mathur, another senior party leader, who arrived along with Mr Jaitley as part of the central party leadership's efforts to bring about a truce, also met Mr Patel late this afternoon.

In a reaction to describing Keshubhai as Kaurav and Modi as ''Krishna'' in the 'Mahabharat' of BJP by the Modi group, Mr Jaitley told mediapersons that the party disapproved such branding of any leaders at any level.

When asked about the poster depicting Keshubhai as a Kaurava, he said that it was a local issue and he had not taken up the matter.

Earlier, Mr Jaitley and Mathur met the media committee of the party and discussed the assembly campaign strategy with them. The BJP has chalked out a plan to use telecommunication systems like mobile, Internet and other equipment for its high profile election campaign.

UNI