Gujarat: With Patidars drifting away, BJP woos OBC votes; five Congress MLAs in its camp

Riding this anti-BJP wave created by the quota agitation and distress in the rural economy, the Congress had performed strongly in the panchayat elections of 2015 and the 2017 Assembly elections, with the party outperforming the BJP in the Saurashtra region that’s considered Patidar territory.

The region has 47 Assembly seats and had remained a stronghold of the BJP since 1995. However, the Congress won 28 seats in 2017, reducing the BJP tally in the Assembly to 19 from the 30 it won in 2012. The Lok Sabha seats of Rajkot, Jamangar, Amreli, Porbandar and Surendranagar fall in this region.

Sources in the BJP say winning over Congress MLAs is part of its strategy to ensure the party does not lose these Lok Sabha seats in Saurashtra. In 2014, the party won all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat.

The five Congressmen who resigned as MLAs and defected — Kunwarji Bavaliya from Jasdan Assembly constituency in Rajkot, Ashaben Patel from Unjha (part of Mehsana LS seat), Javahar Chavda from Manavadar (Porbandar), Parsottam Sabariya from Dhrangadhra (Surendranagar) and Vallabh Dharaviya from Jamnagar (Rural) constituency — did so citing “infighting” in the Congress. Bavaliya and Chavda are now Cabinet ministers in the Vijay Rupani government.

Raju Dhruv, BJP spokesperson for Saurashtra and Kutch, said, “Congress MLAs are joining the BJP because they see their future here… The defections are happening due to mutual will. The BJP cannot deny entry to people who are ready to serve the public.”

Gujarat BJP vice-president I K Jadeja said, “If they want to quit the Congress and join BJP, obviously, the party will not say no to it. Secondly, they have not come as MLAs. All of them have resigned… So they will have to seek a fresh vote.”

The series of defections began in Saurashtra in July last year when Bavaliya, senior Koli leader and then working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), quit the party. Hours later, he joined the BJP and was sworn-in as minister. Bavaliya’s resignation came around six months after he won Jasdan seat for a record fifth time in the 2017 election. The Kolis, an OBC community, form the single largest group of voters in the state, accounting for around 20 per cent of the electorate. With its Koli face, Parsottam Solanki, ailing, the BJP needed a strong Koli face to woo OBC voters and offset the possible loss of Patidar votes.

In February, Unjha Congress MLA Asha defected to the BJP. Once a close aide of Hardik Patel before the two fell out, she had proved to be a giant-killer in 2017, defeating five-time BJP MLA Narayan Patel and bagging Unjha for the Congress for the first time since 1972.

Chavda, GPCC vice-president and four-time MLA, joined the BJP on March 8. While Chavda, an Ahir leader, has held sway over Manavadar since 2007, the Assembly constituency is part of Porbandar parliamentary seat, where the BJP has won four of the last five elections. “The Lok Sabha seat is dominated by Patidars but Ahirs form the second largest group of voters,” said a BJP source.

A day after Chavda joined the BJP, fellow Congress MLA from Dhrangadhra, Parsottam Sabariya, followed him to the BJP camp. The first-time MLA defected to the ruling party around a month after he walked out of jail on bail in an irrigation scam. Sabariya hails from the Koli community that dominates Dhrangadhra Assembly constituency as well as Surendranagar Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP also got Vallabh Dharaviya, a BJP leader from Jamnagar who had defected to the Congress in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly election, back into its fold after Hardik said that he was likely to contest from Jamnagar. Dharaviya is a prominent leader of the Sathwara community that has significant numbers in Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat.

Reacting to the defections, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani accused the BJP of luring Congress MLAs with offers of position and money. “Losing Bavaliya, Ashaben Patel, Chavda and Dharaviya is very painful for me as a team leader. But I know the BJP has lured them with promises and threats,” he said.