By Japan K Pathak, Ahmedabad, 20 October 2014

For how many times, common Patidars(Patels) of Gujarat will be put under test to prove that they are not casteist voters!?

Ahead of year 2002 Gujarat assembly elections, one of the logic ballooned by Congress and section of media in Gujarat against ruling BJP government was that Paridars are angry with BJP, they are sulking, they would not vote for BJP because BJP compelled Keshubhai Patel to step down from the post of Chief Minister, replacing him with Narendra Modi.

Result? The hype was just political. Patidars with their all wisdom voted massively in favor of BJP, reelecting it to power with thumping majority.

Five years later in year 2007 Gujarat assembly elections, Congress party fielded around ten Patidar rebels of BJP. These rebels were seeking vote telling the voters that Patidar leaders aligned with Keshubhai Patel faced injustice in government led by Narendra Modi, and therefore Patidars must not vote for BJP.

Result? All Patidar rebels of BJP fielded by Congress party lost barring only one – Bavku Undhad who has recently rejoined BJP.

In same election, Congress party fielded senior leader Dinsha Patel to contest from Maninagar assembly seat against BJP candidate Narendra Modi. From the day one, we saw acres of news reports trying to convey us that Maninagar had considerable size of Patidar voters and they would vote only for Dinsha Patel and not for Narendra Modi.

Again, the result? Narendra Modi won with thumping majority. Dinsha was distant second like any other candidate. Patidar massively voted for BJP.

In year 2009 Lok Sabha elections, former BJP rebel and Keshubhai Patel loyalist Gordhan Zadafia(Patidar) contested from Bhavnagar Lok Sabha seat against BJP’s Kshatriya candidate Rajendrasinh Rana. Suppose if all Patidars of Bhavnagar district had unitedly voted for him, Zadafia could emerge as winner, but Zadafia just couldn’t win. Yes, Zadafia managed to have excellent size of votes (1,56,000) and thus proved his metal, but was not winner.

In year 2012 Gujarat assembly elections, Khodaldham samiti’s Naresh Patel, then Congress MP Vitthal Radadia, former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, former minister of state for Home Gordhan Zadafia did their best attempt to take Patidar votes away from BJP. A big hype was created across Gujarat that Patidars would not vote for BJP and opt for Keshubhai Patel led Gujarat Parivartan Party(GPP). Millions were spent to make this hype continuously bigger. Propoganda through mass weddings, community meetings, public meetings, newspaper advertisements, yatra …..Keshubhai was projected as Chief Ministerial candidate. Every trick was attempted. (Read: On Saurashtra battle: BJP, LP and GPP )

Result? GPP could win only two seats. Modi government was reelected with almost similar number of seats. Patidars massively voted for BJP and Modi again. One of GPP’s two elected MLAs resigned later in favor of BJP, and the other joined BJP.

Lastly, the latest occasion of Rajkot West assembly by-poll which happened this month. As Rajkot West has major presence of Patidar votes, and as BJP fielded a candidate who was not from Patidar family, the Congress party fielded Patidar candidate and fought the election on caste agenda. Again, community meetings were called, acres of print started discussions that BJP would eat dust in this election due to caste factor related trouble. A vicious and baseless campaign was made that if Patidars elect Vijaybhai as MLA, he will be in capacity to replace Patidar Chief Minister, therefore he should be stopped at local level only.

Well after all hard work, and perception building exercise that Rajkot West is 50-50 game, what was the result on Sunday(yesterday)? BJP candidate Vijaybhai Rupani won the election with a margin of nearly 24,000 votes. Patidars voted in his favor fairly, like they voted in Vajubhai Vala(not Patidar)’s favor for six terms.

The question is, for how many times, common Patidars(Patels) community members in Gujarat will be put under test to prove that they are not casteist? For how many time they need to prove that they think beyond caste when they vote? Why their wisdom is time and again challenged by purposefully triggered hypes ahead of almost every election season?

In addition:

It has been observed that the share of Patidar votes in constituency is often hyped for political gain. In some electoral fight it has been also observed that when Patidarism is propelled audaciously by a political party during campaign, the other party gains non-Patidar votes in unity.