Mumbai: A Surat court docket’s two-year sentence to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in a prison defamation case Thursday has put the highlight on a unique Modi from the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) — Purnesh Modi, a Gujarat MLA, recognized to be near Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It was on this Modi’s criticism that the Surat court docket Thursday handed Gandhi a 2-year jail sentence for having allegedly defamed the Modi surname in a 2019 speech in Karnataka.
Modi is a three-time MLA from Surat West, one of many bastions of the BJP in Gujarat. His get together colleagues describe him as a “hardcore BJP karyakarta” who had labored his means up from being a sales space convener to state cupboard minister.
Generally known as the BJP’s OBC (Different Backward Lessons) face in Surat, Purnesh Modi has extra in frequent with the PM than simply his final identify. Like Narendra Modi, Purnesh too grew up in poverty and labored as a tea vendor when he was younger, native BJP leaders from Surat say.
He additionally labored as a each day wage labourer for some time earlier than becoming a member of an area legislation agency as an apprentice. He developed an curiosity in legislation and ultimately studied to develop into a lawyer, get together leaders additional mentioned.
ThePrint tried reaching Purnesh Modi by way of calls and messages, however his telephone was switched off. This copy will probably be up to date when a response is obtained.
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Tea vendor to lawyer to BJP MLA
Purnesh Modi has been a dedicated BJP employee, largely recognized to be within the good books of the PM and Union House Minister Amit Shah. He has labored his means up within the get together, serving numerous positions corresponding to BJP sales space convener, ward pramukh (chief), BJP corporator for the Surat Municipal Company, standing committee chairman and even head of the BJP Surat unit for 2 phrases beginning 2010.
Speaking to ThePrint, an affiliate of Purnesh Modi, not eager to be named, mentioned, “He had headed the get together’s aid crew from Surat to Kutch within the aftermath of the earthquake in 2001. At the moment, Narendra Modi had patted him on his again.”
Narendra Modi, then the BJP’s nationwide common secretary, had overseen the rehabilitation efforts in Kutch for the get together.
Purnesh Modi first entered the Gujarat meeting by means of a bypoll in 2013, necessitated by the loss of life of sitting BJP MLA Kishore Vankawala. Occasion sources mentioned that whereas BJP’s Anandiben Patel was in favour of a unique candidate, native get together employees needed Modi to get the ticket. Narendra Modi, who was then the Gujarat CM, took the ultimate name.
Rise and fall as minister
A Gujarat BJP chief informed ThePrint, on situation of anonymity, that Purnesh Modi shouldn’t be recognized to get alongside too nicely with Gujarat BJP president C. R. Paatil. And so, when the get together picked Purnesh to affix the newly-appointed Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s cupboard within the 2021 reshuffle, the transfer stunned many.
“It’s mentioned that Purnesh Modi’s identify was an eleventh hour addition on the behest of the BJP’s senior management,” the chief mentioned.
The Surat MLA began his ministerial journey on a buoyant notice. A couple of month after being sworn in as cupboard minister, Purnesh Modi, who held portfolios corresponding to roads and buildings, transport, civil aviation, and tourism and pilgrimage, launched an Android cellular app in his personal identify and urged individuals to make use of it to ship options and complaints about departments below him.
As minister, he additionally organized for the pilgrimage of 4,000 individuals in his constituency to Somnath and different spiritual locations within the state from Surat, flagging 75 buses.
Nevertheless, lower than a 12 months later, in August 2022, Patel divested Modi of the essential roads and buildings portfolio simply three months earlier than the meeting polls. Occasion sources say the rap to Modi was as a result of Gujarat’s roads had suffered tremendously through the heavy rains that 12 months and there have been memes doing the rounds mocking the Gujarat mannequin.
Forward of the Gujarat meeting polls, Modi had courted controversy by justifying the demolitions throughout Guess Dwarka, an island off the Okha Port with a majority Muslim inhabitants. In a sequence of tweets that he later deleted, the minister claimed that the variety of mosques had drastically elevated since 2005, the variety of Muslim voters had additionally ballooned and that the individuals there get their youngsters married to households from Pakistan. He additionally alleged that the island had develop into a drug smuggling hub.
In 2022, he retained the get together’s bastion Surat West with a fats margin of over a lakh votes. This time, nonetheless, the chief didn’t discover a place in Patel’s cupboard.
Defamation case
Purnesh Modi’s swimsuit towards Rahul Gandhi got here within the wake of the latter’s speech at a rally. Within the 2019 Karnataka rally, Gandhi had mentioned “all thieves have Modi because the frequent surname”, taking the names of Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi and the PM in the identical breath.
“The criticism was not political. Purnesh ji stays away from political controversies. The criticism was as a result of Rahul Gandhi had harm the complete Modi neighborhood of Gujarat together with his remarks,” mentioned Ashok Gohil, former treasurer of BJP’s Surat unit, who labored below Purnesh Modi when the latter was BJP Surat president.
“Purnesh ji is the chief president of the Modi Samaj of Gujarat. On behalf of the complete neighborhood, he needed to take objection to such a press release,” Gohil added.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
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