Ahmedabad: Gujarat BJP rebels today alleged that the party has given in to the pressure built up by Chief Minister Narendra Modi to take action against them, and this will be beginning of the party's end in the state.

Denouncing the suspension of two leaders and notices to Keshubhai Patel and Kashiram Rana by BJP s central leadership today, the rebel leaders said, Modi has "pressurised the party high command" to take action against them.

BJP MP Kashiram Rana - who has been issued notice for "hurting the party's interests" in the Gujarat Assembly elections - said in Surat that Modi has "pressurised the party-leadership" to take action against them. "I have not received the notice yet and so I will not comment," Rana said about BJP s decision to issue a notice to him and veteran BJP leader and former CM Keshubhai Patel.

Reacting to the suspensions of BJP MPs Somabhai Patel and Vallabh Kathiria, he said, "I have held the post of the state-unit president for a while and so I feel that both Somabhai and Kathiria should have been issued notices before suspending them from the (primary membership of the) party".

"By taking this step, they don t know what they have done. This is the beginning of the end of the party in the state. With this step the BJP will be erased from the Gujarat s map," former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta, who quit the party just before the elections, said. "We have just seen the news on the media. Once we get the copy of the notice, a proper reply will be given to the party," Keshubhai s aide told PTI.

Source : PTI