Madhavsinh Solanki: Man behind that Bofors 'note' and Gujarat's most enduring caste alliance ByRadhika RamaseshanRadhika Ramaseshan / Updated: Jan 9, 2021, 15:16 IST Madhavsinh Solanki would have earned a prominent place in India’s annals as one of its most successful political leaders had fate and the push to please the Congress’s first family not besmirched his CV. Solanki, who passed away today at 93, was the Congress’s longest serving Chief Minister in Gujarat and achieved for his party, the kind of majority in the legislature that the BJP has not surpassed at the pinnacle of Narendra Modi’s popularity. As the external affairs minister in P V Narasimha Rao’s cabinet, Solanki was sent to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum in February 1992. Instead of mingling with the movers and shakers at the exclusive retreat, he allegedly used the trip to pursue another agenda. If Solanki’s purported objective was fulfilled, it would have guaranteed him a niche in the Congress’s highest echelon for time to come. That was something he was desperate for having been in the political wilderness for several years until Rao sort of rehabilitated him.