AHMEDABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Gordhanbhai Zadaphia on Friday said his party would not allow Narmada Bachao Agitation (NBA) leader Medha Patker and her associates to enter the city.

While speaking to newsmen at the BJP office, Zadaphia said NBA had created several hurdles against the Narmada project and the people of the state were eagerly awaiting the flow of waters from the dam. The state government has so far spent more than Rs 10,000 crores. The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry had invited Patker and Arundhati Roy to discuss the project in June.

When asked whether the party would pressurise the administration to ban her entry into the state in view of the popular feelings for the project, Zadaphia said it was upto the government to decide. He said the BJP workers would form a human chain to stop her from entering the city. "We will not ask the GCCI to cancel the programme as it is an autonomous body of trade and industry."

Strongly rebutting leader of Opposition Amarsinh Chaudhary's charge that the popularity of the chief minister was declining, Zadaphia said that he should not be oblivious of the fact that Keshubhai had been re-elected after the coup engineered by the Congress in 1995. "Chaudhary should worry about AICC president Sonia Gandhi's popularity that has registered a nose-dive."

While referring to Chaudhary's suggestion that Union rural development minister Sunderlal Patwa should direct Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh keep the height of the dam at 110 metre height, Zadaphia said the minister has never come in the way of Gujarat, while Singh has been opposing the project.

He also contested Chaudhary's contention that the BJP would lose half of the municipal corporations and municipalities if election were announced. He said, "We will win more municipalities and panchayats."

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