Not just Haren Pandya, even Dhirubhai Shah, youngest assembly speaker, wanted to be Gujarat CM

Dhirubhai Shah with Keshubhai Patel 

When Keshubhai Patel was sought to be replaced by the BJP high command in 2001, everyone knows that Narendra Modi became the final choice. However, someone who was part of the top circles those days now tells me something I had no knowledge of—that the choice was between Modi and a Kutch MLA, Dhirubhai Shah, who served as the 16th Speaker from March 1998 to December 2002 during the 10th Assembly, the youngest to take the office.

I have little reason to doubt this information, as it comes from a well-informed source. What I know for sure is that, as the assembly speaker after Modi became chief minister, Dhirubhai would often act independently, not caring for Modi's command, which was already considered the BJP whip. This was quite unlike later assembly speakers, who appeared to act more at the behest of Modi and the BJP. As a rule, when you are an assembly speaker, you stop acting as a party functionary; in fact, you are not supposed to participate in any party functions as a mark of your independence.

Quite unlike most other ministers around Modi, Dhirubhai was friendly with me. Less than two kilometres from my residence in Gandhinagar allocated to the Times of India, I would invariably visit him at his sprawling bungalow in the ministerial enclave of the Gujarat capital, especially on Sundays, when he would be relatively free. We would talk a lot, and he would frankly tell me what was happening in the BJP ruling circles, both when Keshubhai Patel was the chief minister and later when Modi took over the reins of power on October 17, 2001.

One of the very few who could speak in English, Dhirubhai was defeated in the December 2002 elections by Congress leader Babu Meghji Shah by around 4,000 votes. The rumour in those days was that whoever thought they could win independently of Modi's blessings would be defeated. Indeed, even former BJP chief minister Suresh Mehta was defeated by a Congress non-entity, Chhabilbhai Patel, by a mere 500 votes. Mehta, who always claimed to be "senior to Modi" (he was chief minister in 1996-97), left the BJP in 2007. Ironically, Chhabilbhai Patel, who would always praise Modi in personal conversations, was once in the BJP and rejoined the party (like many others) in 2014.

Though defeated, Dhirubhai was made Chairman of the Gujarat Finance Commission in 2003—a post he effectively held until 2005, when he suffered a massive heart attack and went into a coma, a state in which he remained until he passed away in 2008 at the age of 55.

Allotted a chamber in Sachivalaya, I would often meet Dhirubhai, who was always frank about things like the state of finances in Gujarat—he had access to the latest information about it, and this would help me write stories for the Times of India. In personal talks, when we journalists would tell him he could be a "better chief minister" at a time when there were efforts within Gujarat BJP led by Keshubhai Patel to unseat Modi, he would suddenly lighten up!

Be that as it may, in the second half of 2001, when an alternative to Keshubhai Patel was being sought, given Modi's clout as all-India general secretary and as a top RSS man, Dhirubhai, who might have been posed as an option, had little chance. Even Haren Pandya, who was soon to emerge as Modi's rival, "voted for Modi" when opinions were sought on who could replace Keshubhai.

Mysteriously murdered in 2003, Haren surely could have been an option when the rebellion against Modi began picking up in 2003-04. It is said, he was already aspiring to replace Modi. Already a popular leader, Haren boasted he had the backing of Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani when Modi ensured he did not get a ticket to fight from Ahmedabad's Ellisbridge seat. "Haren would have been a far more polished alternative to Modi. One had to only see how he would face the media, unlike Modi, who fumbled," said someone who knew Haren well.