Sidhu attack turns into self-goal

Sidhu's comments, which have ended up rallying many Leuva Patels together, appear to have been part of a BJP strategy. He targeted Keshubhai repeatedly from Thursday to Saturday.

"Sidhu's comments have been misunderstood," BJP general secretary Vijay Rupani said when contacted.

Until Sidhu made his outbursts, Gujarat's BJP leaders had chosen not to make remarks against Keshubhai, their party's first chief minister until his eventual replacement with Modi. All the attacks had been from Keshubhai's side. In January, he had made an indirect attack on Modi. By July, when he had held 10 conventions across the state, his attacks had become more frequent and he had gone to the extent of calling Modi a devil, equating him with Hitler and describing him as a magician. All this while, neither Modi nor any BJP leader had said a word in public about Keshubhai.

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