Advani: Spewing fire

Ahmedabad, July 4: Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani today said the government would have to face the consequences for misinterpreting the Constitution to sack the governors of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Goa.

“I want to warn (the) Manmohan Singh government that such selective sacking could have serious repercussions. This step smacks of politics and groupism,” the former deputy Prime Minister said at a felicitation function at Gandhinagar.

“If this government continues to take confrontationist steps like sacking of governors, it would clearly mean a disregard for people’s mandate and their concept of government of consensus,” he said.

Advani, who visited Gandhinagar for the first time today after being re-elected to the Lok Sabha from there, warned the Congress for misinterpreting article 156(1), which says the governor will hold the position at the pleasure of the President, and article 156(3), which says the governor will have a five-year tenure.

The leader of Opposition reiterated that his party would take on the Congress in the coming Parliament session over “tainted” ministers and the removal of governors. He termed the induction of “tainted” persons in the United Progressive Alliance government as “criminalisation of the government”.

“This (induction of tainted ministers) is such a grossly wrong step of the UPA government that it will not be easy for them to free themselves of it,” Advani said.

Advani was to visit Gujarat before the national executive in Mumbai but was forced to cancel his programme in view of the discontent in the state BJP against chief minister Narendra Modi’s style of functioning. Nearly half of the BJP MLAs wanted Modi to go, but things changed in favour of the chief minister after the Mumbai meet.

Though dissidence in the Gujarat BJP has been brought under control after the national executive, Modi’s arch rival, former chief minister Keshubhai Patel, was not present at the felicitation. Patel, who was dislodged by Modi, has allegedly been patronising dissident MLAs.

Advani, who plans to meet party MPs from Gujarat, is also expected to meet Modi and Patel separately to discuss a cabinet expansion and find a replacement for Rajendrasinh Rana who completed his tenure as the state BJP president about a year ago.

BJP sources said Modi would opt for a cabinet expansion only after new president, loyal to him, is appointed especially as his relation with Rana had been frosty. Rana had attributed the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls to the “lack of coordination between the government and the party”.

Advani today admitted that “some” mistakes had led to the National Democratic Alliance’s rout and said that mere good governance and commitment to development was not enough to garner votes.