The clamour within the saffron brigade against the Gujarat Chief Minister just got louder with Uma Bharati announcing her decision to field candidates under the banner of her Bharatiya Janshakti Party.

In her first interaction with the media in Gujarat, Bharti minced no words in stating that her main aim was to topple Narendra Modi and “Modi’s brand of Hindutva” and not to let the Congress benefit from the strife within the Hindutva camp.

While Bharti appeared to be banking on the towering persona of the sidelined Patel patriarch Keshubhai Patel to make a dent in the BJP bastion, she also indicated that her persuasion to get him out of the BJP hasn’t borne much fruit so far. “Some leaders, who are unhappy with the party, are with it as they equate their ideology with their party,” she said.

Interestingly, while she had directed all her ire against Modi, she also said she and her party will back off in case the BJP decides to replace Modi with Keshubhai. Meanwhile, she also declared that Swami Avichaldas of Sarsa would be the president of her party’s Gujarat unit.

After addressing mediapersons in Ahmedabad, Bharti drove down to Gandhinagar on evening and was closeted with former CM and “rebel-in-chief” Keshubhai Patel for over an hour at the latter’s bungalow. She was accompanied by her party’s Rajasthan and Gujarat presidents Umeshdatt Mathur and Chaitanya Shambhu Maharaj.