NEW DELHI, April 10: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday rejected demands of its allies and the opposition to dismiss the chief minister of Gujarat state, saying he had done a good job controlling violence.

The BJP said Gujarat, where more than 800 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in the country’s worst communal killings in a decade, would be discussed at a meeting of top party officials this weekend but Chief Minister Narendra Modi would keep his job.

“Why should he go? He has handled the situation well. It would have flared up further,” a party spokesman said.

“In any case, removing chief ministers is not a solution.”

The BJP’s national executive begins a three-day session in Goa on Friday, at which party bosses, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, will discuss a string of recent electoral losses as well as Gujarat.

Two regional partners in the BJP-led federal coalition joined the opposition in demanding that Modi be removed for turning a blind eye to recent bloodshed in the state.

Violence has continued to erupt intermittently and thousands of Muslims are still in relief camps and mosques, too terrified to return home.

Some of the BJP’s coalition allies, who hold the key to Vajpayee’s survival in office, are uneasy about his reluctance to act against hardline Hindu groups accused of a deep-seated bias against India’s 120 million Muslims.—Reuters