gujarat: Gujarat’s Patidar pitch heats up in the runup to elections

Patidar leader Hardik Patel, the working president of Gujarat Congress, is troubled by the possibility of another big Patidar leader Naresh Patel being included in the party ahead of the assembly elections in the state.

Naresh Patel has been guessing everyone from his side. But the interest he has generated with his possible entry into electoral politics has reaffirmed the importance of the Patidar community in Gujarat politics.

The ruling BJP replaced its entire cabinet, including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, and brought in Bhupendra Patel, a Patidar, as chief minister last year, which collapsed in a jiffy.

Hardik Patel rose to prominence in 2015 riding the Patidar agitation, which fueled community anger against the BJP in the 2017 assembly election. Several of his allies were fielded by the Congress in Saurashtra and he went door-to-door, cementing Patel’s position as an activist and as a rallying point against the BJP in Gujarat. He soon joined the Congress and was made the working president of the party, a matter of concern to senior state leaders.

Naresh Patel, an industrialist and head of the Khodaldham Trust, which runs the largest temple of Khodiyar Mata, the ruling deity of the Leuva Patel community, has indicated his willingness to engage in electoral politics and the three political parties – BJP, Congress and AAP – started wooing her. However, his inclination seems to be towards the Congress.

According to people familiar with the matter, Patel had sought the participation of election strategist Prashant Kishor in chalking out the Gujarat election campaign strategy for the Congress and wanted to appear as the chief ministerial candidate. While talks continued, Patel’s visit to Delhi this week fueled speculation that the deal was done. On Saturday, however, Patel told the media in Rajkot that his visit to Delhi was for social reasons and that he had met Prashant Kishor at a wedding. Furthermore, he put on hold his decision to join politics until mid-May.

A senior Congress leader from Saurashtra said Patel’s entry would generate enthusiasm among the workers at large, at least in the short term. “As of now, we see that the anger against the government on the ground is much higher than in 2017,” the leader said.

Originally published at Pen 18