Talking to reporters on Monday, Gaekwad said he would meet IPCL union members, politicians and land-losers to gain support for the the ``non-political'' movement.

Questioning the need to hand over a profit-making company to a private party, he alleged that there were possibilities of shady dealings. It is surprising that a company having assets worth Rs 20,000 crore was being sold off only for Rs 1,250 crore by giving 25 per cent share to corporates, he stated.

Gaekwad, suggesting an alternative, said that it would be advisable to throw open 49 per cent share to public and thus ensuring the management to remain with the people who were running the company well since 1982. The company had never sought budgetary support from the Central Government, he said, adding that from an initial investment of Rs 240 crore, it had come a long way.

Also it had 350 acre land in Vadodara and 2,000 acre land in Gandhar, he added.

Claiming that in future IPCL required to set up additional four lakh metric tonne naptha cracker unit, Gaekwad added that if the company which took over did not have the capacity for further investment, about 12,000 employees would be left in a lurch.

According to Gaekwad, IPCL was the second largest unit other than Reliance to cater to 45 per cent requirement of petroleum products. According to his information, he said, even Reliance and Shell had bid claims. If the IPCL management was taken over by Reliance, it would have a complete monopoly and in case Shell took over it would be encouraging a multi-national company. Gaekwad also claimed that handing over IPCL's management to a private company would adversely effect Gujarat's economy because a private enterprise would reduce employment and maximise their profits at the cost of people.

Calling for the need to privatise Petrofils, country's only co-operative in the synthetic yarn sector, Gaekwad said that it was surprising that the Government was delaying a decision despite a rehabilitation package already submitted by CRISIL.

He opined that privatisation would help in companies like Petrofils where the workers had not received salaries for several months. Claiming that when he was the MP, the Petroleum Ministry had released Rs 37.36 crore for reviving Petrofils and alleged that after Rs 3 crore were released the company did not bother to follow up the matter.