By J P Gupta
Mehsana, Gujarat, Nov 9 (UNI) The home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also the epicentre of the Patidar quota agitation -Mehsana- has become the testing ground for the BJP and the Congress, vying for power in the two-phase Gujarat Assembly polls scheduled next month.
Billed as one of the most important tests for the BJP before the general elections in 2019, the stakes are high for the party in this Assembly poll. “The BJP must either win the Patidar heart or break up their movement," local BJP leaders say.
North Gujarat district Mehsana, a bastion of Patidar community, especially Kadwa faction to which Patidar leader Hardik Patel belongs, has seven assembly segments, five represented by the BJP and two by the Congress in the current house.
In the 2012 Assembly elections, the Congress had won 17 seats in North Gujarat and the BJP had managed to grab 15. However, a factor for the performance of the Congress was Shankarsinh Vaghela, the heavyweight politician who holds a strong sway in at least a dozen constituencies in the region. Vaghela, who dumped the Congress in July this year, has floated a new party Jan Vikalp, and will likely contest from North and Central Gujarat.
It has added poll flavour this time as Mehsana Assembly segment is currently represented by state Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Nitin Patel. He won this seat for the first time in 2012 Assembly polls after his traditional Kadi seat was made a reserved constituency after delimitation before the polls.
The Patidar hub, Mehsana, saw a violent agitation in 2015 for reservation benefits in college admissions and government jobs. As a result, the BJP lost its hold in the countryside in local body elections held in November 2015. The party had to replace Chief Minister Anandiben Patel with Vijay Rupani as a consequence of this patidar agitation.
Its importance can also be gauged from the fact that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi chose Mehsana to kick-start his party’s campaign last year during gram panchayat elections in the state.
North Gujarat, where Modi’s hometown Vadnagar is situated, is a stronghold of the Congress. The Congress wrested five districts and 27 taluka panchayats from the BJP in the November 2015 elections held against the the backdrop of Patidar agitation.
The most sacrosanct place of Kadwa patidar ,Umia Dhaam also falls in Mehsana. Thousands of Patidars visit this place every day to pay obeisance to the deity.
Touring across different villages and also talking with Patidar community people in Mehsana and Umia Dhaam on Wednesday revealed that impact of Hardik Patel over his community people has diluted since the first rally in 2015.
“Many close associates of Hardik Patel left the movement. He is trying to reap personal benefits using our numbers,” says Tulsi Bhai a native of Bareli village while talking to UNI in Umia Dhaam temple complex.
"He has no concern for Patidars engaged in farming sector," he adds.
Mehsana district BJP General Secretary Pankaj Bhai Chaudhary supports Tulsi’s version adding that those educated people of Patidar community have begun to realise that their demand could only be realised after amending the Constitution of the country and it was possible only by supporting the government at the centre. " So this educated class was now distancing itself from the Hardik movement," Mr Chaudhary says.
“The BJP has been actively regaining ground in Mehsana with grassroots engagement,” adds Chaudhary.
In Mehsana, people do not have any issues about basic amenities - road, electricity, drinking water, education and healthcare. They just want that the development agenda is continued to envelop more and more populations in the district.
"Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Mission Indradhanush (Immunisation of children) and Ujala Gujarat Yojana for distribution of LED bulbs have benefited us," says Murgesh Patel, a patidar youth of Naroda village .
Patels make up around 14 per cent of Gujarat’s population. In 2012, Patels first brought up the demand for quota on behalf of the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), a community organisation headquartered in Mehsana. In 2015, Hardik Patel, then social media coordinator of SPG, took charge of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti,(PAAS) a Patel group focussed on reservations.
"After all the pride of having a Gujarati PM supersedes all the other factors," adds another Patidar in Unjha, some 100 kms away from the state's capital.
There are an estimated 4 lakh Kadwa Patidars in Mahesna district, while Thakurs are close to 3.5 lakh in numbers. OBCs and Dalits are also in sizeable chunk but ultimately Patidars play decisive role in ensuring victory for a candidate or party in seven assembly segments in this district.
"BJP’s preparation is in top gear. We have already organised at least seven programmes after the poll dates were announced. Our rivals have yet to begin any exercise here," says district BJP official. Deputy CM Nitin Patel has pumped in around Rs 1,200 crore during five years for the development works in Mehsana and it would definitely yield satisfying result for the party, he further adds.
A closed office of the district Congress just speaks volumes about party’s seriousness and preparedness for the polls in Mehsana.
The new-found caste polemics of a Dalit, OBC and Patidar, including Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel, and OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, is a bundle of contradictions, those who know Gujarat politics say.
"Reshma Patel and Varun Patel – key aides of Hardik Patel – quit PAAS to join BJP on October 21," more such abrupt events will happen before the D- Day, says another youth Kanti Bhai in Ahmadabad.
If the BJP is becoming poll-ready, the Congress, too, flexing its muscles like never before since 1995.
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