‘Voters won’t forget’: Ganesh pandal in flood-ravaged Vadodara has a message for BJP leaders

Vishwakunj Society in Karelibaug, located close to the Vishwamitri River on the rear of Sayajibaug Garden, has been known for its extravagant Ganesh pandal themes. In fact, in 2014, right after Narendra Modi was elected as Prime Minister for the first time, the society themed its Ganesh pandal decoration on the Vishwamitri Riverfront Project, expressing hope that PM Modi would push for the flood mitigation project in Vadodara. However, ten years later, the residents say they feel “helpless and abandoned”.

Talking to The Indian Express, Kalpesh Naik, president of Vishwakunj Housing Society, who is also a BJP leader and has previously served as the president of Ward 3 for the BJP, said, “We had planned a very innovative e-Ganesh pandal theme on sculptures of Vadodara, which have been used to beautify traffic islands; but the floods left us devastated. Our homes were inundated up to 8 feet, and residents lost their furniture, electronics, clothes, vessels and the smallest personal items, such as wristwatches. Of course, we also suffered massive damage to two-wheelers and four-wheelers that have been classified in the total loss category by the insurance company.”

Naik said the residents’ protest is against the BJP’s “opportunistic flood politics”. He said, “We have put up a message barring the elected corporators of this ward from entering here… It is because two of the four corporators live a distance of about 10 minutes from our colony. One corporator, Rupal Mehta, lives in the adjoining colony. They did not reach out to us for help and when we managed things on our own, including our sanitation work, they clicked pictures to upload on social media as if the BJP had done it.”

Naik said that the residential colony joined the series of protests that the BJP has been facing as it feels “cynical” about the “announcement and intention” of the Vishwamitri river project.

Naik said, “We live in a residential colony along the course of the river, and we understand that we are in a flood-risk area. We do not blame anyone if the river floods our colony in a helpless situation. But we do know that the floods that Vadodara witnesses every five years are the administration’s doing. One reason is that they have not kickstarted the Vishwamitri project due to lack of will… and the second reason is that the people who are handed over the administrative power after winning elections have no idea about flood management.”

Naik added, “The residents of this area feel that there should be a regulatory committee to decide the flood management. The VMC must plan to drain the Ajwa Reservoir during the week before heavy rain predictions in July and August instead of waiting until the last minute to release a big volume of water into the Vishwamitri, which has so much encroachment along the course… However, neither the elected office bearers nor the appointed bureaucrats have any knowledge of reservoir management or the sense of belonging for Vadodara…”

The protest at Vishwakunj Society comes a day after corporator Mehta alleged that she had been “dragged down the stage” erected for distributing flood relief kits to residents by a party leader in the presence of senior members of the party’s executive.

Naik, currently a primary member of the BJP, said, “It takes the BJP-ruled VMC several years to work on smallest things like setting up a cycling track on a part of the river course from where encroachments were cleared in 2014… They had only begun creating a recreation space on the riverbank for the residents of this area when the floods arrived. We are unsure if we should ever expect the Rs 1,200 crore project to take off… This time, the anger among the voters will not subside as it is only when one suffers a huge financial setback that the mindset changes and it has happened to the residents of Vadodara this time. The voters will not forget.”