However, the CM has not accepted the resignation and instead asked Mehta to attend office in the same ministerial position. But the Minister appears determined, saying, ``I am not going to withdraw my resignation, in any case''. He will, however, continue to attend office till the resignation was formally accepted.

Announcing this at his official residence here, the minister, who appeared grim, told mediapersons, ``The bickerings within the State BJP have reached such a flashpoint that the blood of loyal and committed party workers (like Bavji Jadeja) has become cheaper''.

Taking a dig at his detractors in the party, Mehta remarked, ``Thus, people have been literallyhounding me since the day I got a committed BJP worker elected as the president of the party's Kutch district unit before the Assembly elections in the State. They are living in fools' paradise. They cannot harm me politically, for my political life is different.''

He said he had no intention to damage the party, nor had he asked his supporters to resign from the party posts they held. ``I have not taken this extreme step to break the government headed by Keshubhai Patel or grab the chief ministership in the bargain. The BJP is my ideal and I will continue to serve the party as its loyal soldier'', Mehta said.

A flurry of political activities was witnessed both at the State Secretariat and the ministerial enclave, as soon as news of Mehta's resignation spread in the State Capital. Minutes after his return from Kutch at around 2.30 pm, Mehta sent in his resignation letter, through his personal assistant, to the CM.

Keshubhai Patel put the resignation letter in his pocket and immediately left the ChiefMinister's Office for his official residence in the ministerial enclave, where he summoned Mehta. As both were clossetted there for over half-an-hour, national BJP General Secretary Venkaiah Naidu called up the CM from Delhi to tell him to withhold Mehta's resignation letter till the party's Vice-President K L Sharma reached Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

The CM told a group of mediapersons outside his bungalow, ``Sureshbhai has handed over his resignation to me, but I have not accepted it. After much persuasion, he has agreed to attend the office tomorrow to serve the people of the State''.

Responding to a query, Patel said the Industries Minister was apparently grieved over the murder of one of his loyalists and Kutch district panchayat member Bavjibhai Jadeja in the district recently, and Mehta's action only to gave vent to his pent-up feelings over the murder.

``Mehta also told me he would not do what Shankarsinh Vaghela who had rebelled in 1995, did'', the CM said, adding the minister had assured him hewould continue his efforts to strengthen the party organisation and the government, both in the State and at the Centre.

A valuable informer

GANDHINAGAR: Bhavjibhai Jadeja, whose murder has led to the resignation of Gujarat's Industry Minister Suresh Mehta, was regarded as ``a valuable infomer'' by Indian intelligence agencies in the border area of Kutch, according to a senior police officer.

Jadeja was shot from pointblank range by an armed gang on September 10 while accompanying a Forest Department team in a raid on the ``charcoal mafia'', which indulges in the illicit felling of trees.

A rich landlord, who owned about 500 acre of irrigated land and commanded influence in the area, Jadeja was regarded a key lieutenant of Mehta, who belongs to Kutch. Jadeja was also a member of the Kutch District Panchayat.