However, standing committee chairman Dharmendra Shah is still hopeful that the proposal would come through and the AMC would acquire a portion of ABAD. He said that after the meeting he had asked deputy municipal commissioner M K Das to work out possibilities based on the Ferguson report. He said the AMC could induct these employees in place of the daily-wagers, and in other places by stopping advertisements.

Shah had earlier said the AMC would take over the dairy and its entire staff if the dairy was willing to give its premises at a token rate.

He had said the AMC was willing to take the entire staff and take over part of the dairy. But Patel later said the cost of the part of the dairy was only Rs 12 crore and if the GDDC offered the voluntary retirement scheme, it would cost about Rs 14 crore.

And GDDC chief Babubhai J Patel had maintained that they were not ready to give the entire dairy as the property was worth Rs 50 crore and the GDDC had bought it from the AMC. He said the GDDC would give only a portion to the AMC if the latter took all the employees.

This, sources said, made the BJP high command change its mind, and has not been involved in any meeting so far. The high command and Surendra Patel attended the meeting today for the first time.