Gujarat polls: BJP feared mass exodus after Keshubhai's exit

On the day of the first phase of Assembly elections in Gujarat, the BJP admitted that the launch of Keshubhai Patel's Gujarat Parivartan Party gave them the jitters as the party feaared a mass exodus."Naturally there was a worry when Keshubhai Patel launched the new party, that his supporters in the BJP would go to that party. But fortunately no big leader or small workers left the BJP to join Keshubhai," Gujarat BJP spokesperson Vijay Rupani told IBN7 in Rajkot."They had hoped that leaders who did not get BJP tickets will join them. That also did not happen," Rupani said.

"Many people in the BJP wanted to become MLAs. But tickets could not be given to all. However, they remained loyal to the BJP. Even the Congress house was literally on fire after the tickets were distributed. So I am confident that we will get more seats in Saurashtra than last time," he said.The BJP spokesperson also said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was not raking emotive and national issues without a reason in the Assembly polls."Modi was not trying to rake up emotive and national issues for nothing. The Congress government in New Delhi under instructions from Sonia Gandhi is disturbing us for the last 10 years. So we have not left even the national issues for the state polls. We wanted people to compare between the Gujarat government and the Central government and see how both the parties run their respective governments and vote after that," Rupani said.The first phase of polls is on in Gujarat. The second phase of polls is on 17 December. The counting of votes is on 20 December.