Realising that winning the Gujarat polls was not going to be a cakewalk, specially without the ‘‘wholehearted’’ support of Keshubhai Patel, Deputy PM L.K. Advani went all out to woo him on a daylong Ahmedabad tour yesterday.Advani made it a point to take him along to all functions and gave him credit for the ‘‘vast development’’ in the state. Even caretaker CM Narendra Modi was careful to mention Keshubhai’s name favourably in his speech at the inauguration of the country’s first IMAX 3D theatre in Gujarat Science City.Advani too gave the entire credit for ‘‘visualising and implementation’’ of the Science City to the former CM. He even asked Modi to ‘‘take Keshubhai along’’ and not to alienate him.Keshubhai’s rebuff to Modi, last time when Advani was in the state capital, clearly seemed to have worked.While Advani had announced, during his address at the BJP’s Sankalp Sammelan two weeks ago, that Modi would be the CM if party won the polls, Keshubhai had been sidelined.In his turn, the former CM had made several veiled attacks on Modi, asking him to put his house in order. This time Keshubhai seemed happy at the attention showered on him. ‘‘I am a party worker and will do my best to ensure BJP victory in the forthcoming polls,’’ he said.
