AHMEDABAD: A seemingly innocuous statement by Union minister Parshottam Rupala praising the Dalit community snowballed into an affront against the Rajput communities with the latter demanding that he be dropped as the BJP candidate for the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat.
Multiple attempts to broker peace failed and the BJP refused to blink. Stirring the pot by design or otherwise seems to have united the Patidars who have a historic animosity with the Rajputs.
Rupala had on March 22 lauded the Dalit community for not bowing down to the British when even “kings and royals” had started breaking bread with the Britishers. Since the rulers of the princely states during the British Raj were mostly Rajputs, they launched statewide protests against Rupala and gave a call to boycott him in the Rajkot polls. It had repercussions beyond the state as well.
Till the controversy broke, Rajkot was among the safest of BJP seats in Gujarat. It has been with the BJP since 1989 except giving the Congress the mandate once in 2009. The BJP gave Rupala the ticket after dropping its sitting candidate Mohan Kundaria, who had also served as a Union minister of state for agriculture.
The Rajput discontentment cannot be brushed away easily as they have an estimated 1.5 lakh votes out of about 20 lakh voters in the constituency. The constituency is dominated by Patidars whose vote share is 25%.
While Rupala belongs to the Kadva sub caste of the Patidars, his Congress opponent Paresh Dhanani is a Leuva Patidar, another Patidar sub caste. Rajkot has 1.91 lakh Kadva voters as compared to 3.50 lakh Leuva Patidars.
Dhanani is a former leader of opposition in the Gujarat assembly. If he can draw even 50% of the Leuva Patidars to his side, he can make the going difficult for Rupala who is already facing Rajput unrest.
After failing to mollify the Rajputs, BJP leader and former chief minister Vijay Rupani told the media, "If a few persons are unhappy and don't vote for the party candidate, it will not make much difference. Rupala will win the election by a big margin."
For his part, Rupala exuded confidence in getting the Rajput votes, adding he would make it to the Lok Sabha by a good margin. But Dhanani claims the people are angry and want to defeat Rupala.
Both Rupala and Dhanani are from Amreli district and in the past Dhanani has defeated Rupala in assembly elections.
Among the major issues in Rajkot are unemployment, affordable crop insurance, ensuring fair prices for agricultural produce, industrial slowdown and water scarcity. But the overarching Narendra Modi factor in Gujarat is a no-brainer. How well it will play out in Rajkot remains to be seen.