AHMEDABAD: On the second day of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's Gujarat visit, the former met top leaders of the party. He discussed with them the strategy to be adopted for the assembly polls in Gujarat slated to be held in December this year.
According to Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Yogesh Jadwani, Kejriwal also met leaders of various communities and political analysts and took suggestions from them. He assured to re-visit Gujrat soon.
Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann visited the Shahibaug BAPS Swaminarayan Temple and offered prayers.
The Swaminarayan sect has a large following among the Patel (Patidar ) community members. This sect has around 1100 saints which should be the highest in number for any sect after the Ramkrishna Mission. Patel community has traditionally been with the BJP, but a section of the community has turned against the party due to Patidar's agitation for reservation in 2015, The sect also has a large following among the backward classes in the state.
The Congress is also trying to wean away from the saffron party the Patidars, who have been the bedrock of the BJP’s support base in the state, apart from the upper castes and the Vaishya community.
A few months back, Mahant Vishwa Vallabh Swamy of Swaminarayan Sampraday Mandir of Alkapuri Rustam Bagh, A.K. Road, Surat made a political comment on Aam Adami Party in an online Spiritual Katha. His remarks were seen as an indication of the success of AAP in the 2022 Assembly elections thereby sparking a controversy.
According to political analyst Dilip Patel, the Swaminarayan sect's relationship with politics has grown stronger over the last 25 years. The Swaminarayan sect has a very close relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2017 PM Modi was the chief guest of Akshardham Mandir”
"Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Swaminarayan temple shows that he's playing the Hindutva card just like the BJP," he added.
Notably, Kejriwal and Mann had paid obeisance at a Khodiyar temple in the Nikol area of Ahmedabad on Saturday. The temple is also of great importance to the Patidar community, and Kejriwal's road show, "Tiranga Yatra" was also held in Patidar population-dominated areas.