AHMEDABAD, February 3: Opposition to the renomination of certain sitting MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became noisier with one party worker threatening self-immolation by Wednesday evening and scores of ward-level office-bearers bringing resignation letters in protest.The striking party workers, who camped in a pandal erected overnight in front of the state party head office, snapped telephone lines of the entire building housing the party office.Purshottam Nanji Shaparia, a party worker in Odhav since Jan Sangh days, threatened to set himself afire in front of the party office at Khanpur on Wednesday at 5 p m if the renomination of Gopaldas Bhojwani, the BJP candidate for Naroda, was not cancelled. "Bhojwani has remained insensitive to the woes of his constituency and owes his ticket to Advani, despite indulging in malpractices and doublespeak," he said. "Anyone but Bhojwani should be given the ticket," he said.State general secretary Sanjay Joshi was forced to come down to the pandal andmeet the slogan-shouting party workers. The presence of standing committee chairperson Mayaben Kodnani, former mayor Nandlal Wadhwa and other corporators encouraged the vociferous protestors.A senior party leader said the workers took to the streets after other methods of persuasion failed. He alleged that some senior leaders were threatening physical harm to the workers if they didn't wind up the protest soon.
