An outlaw-turned-politician, and a little-known chapter in Saurashtra politics

While the BJP has kept multiple murder-accused Jayrajsinh Jadeja, its former Gondal MLA and Mahipatsinh’s rival, at the centre of its politics in Gondal for a quarter of a century, it was Mahipatsinh who created this brand of politics before being beaten by Jayrajsinh at his own game.

On February 12, when the family was concluding the funeral rites for Mahipatsinh, who died on February 1, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was attending the wedding of Jyotiradityasinh Jadeja, son of sitting BJP MLA Geetaba and Jayrajsinh in Gondal — a poignant reflection of the change in fortunes of the rival Kshatriya brigands.

In an interview in 2019, Mahipatsinh had recalled how he was jailed in 1952 for allegedly joining a 1949 revolt by Kshatriyas against the government plans to divest Kshatriyas with royal connections of giras (large estates), whose ownerships they had retained even after princely states had merged into Union of India. The government of the then Saurashtra state eventually enacted Saurashtra Barkhali Abolition Act 1951, taking ownership of large tracts of lands away from Kshatriya girasdars (estate owners) for redistribution among the landless. The 1937-born Mahipatsinh had a reason to join the revolt. His father Bhavubha, who was a farmer when Mahipatsinh was born, had later enrolled in the police force of the erstwhile princely state of Palitana in present-day Bhavnagar, says Mahipatsinh’s elder sister Chanduba Chudasama.

Mahipatsinh Jadeja (left) with his son Aniruddhsinh during a press conference. (Express Photo/File)

As per his own admission, Mahipatsinh was externed from the Rajkot district in 1957 and 1963, before being booked in 1965 for allegedly committing 76 dacoities in 43 villages along with other “gang” members. While he was acquitted in that case in 1968, he was externed again. Later on, he formed a truckers’ association in Gondal taluka and became its secretary.

He forayed into electoral politics by winning a seat in Gondal taluka panchayat in 1975 (and again in 1980) as an Independent. He became president of Gondal taluka panchayat that year with the help of some Congress members who wanted to prevent Janata Dal from seizing control of the panchayat. However, he lost favour of Congress supporters later, and lost the 1986 election to the taluka panchayat. But his friction with Popat Sorathiya, the then Congress MLA from Gondal, and a Patidar, was increasing by the day. Sensing that Sorathiya was coming in the way of his father’s rise, Mahipatsinh’s 22-year-old son Aniruddhsinh shot the Congress MLA dead in full public view at the Independence Day event in 1988, when the Congress was in power in Gujarat. Aniruddsinh was detained by some State Reserve Police (SRP) officers who were attending the celebrations. Aniruddhsinh, whose sentence has now been remitted, was booked for murder and under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act as well as the Arms Act.

Sorathiya, who was elected MLA from this seat in 1972, 1975 and 1985, had emerged as a strong leader of the Leuva Patidars in Saurashtra. His murder shocked the agrarian community who were the single largest group of voters in the Gondal Assembly seat. “Sorathiya was a very popular leader among Patidars who held enough votes to decide the winner in Gondal. Aniruddhsinh apparently felt his father stood no chance till Sorathiya was alive,” says a political worker in Gondal.

After Sorathiya’s murder, the Gondal Assembly seat remained vacant for a year-and-a-half as no bypoll was held. When the Assembly elections were held in 1990, Mahipatsinh threw his hat in the ring as an Independent. The Congress fielded its local leader Kishor Andipara who, sources claim, had a role in making Mahipatsinh president of the Gondal taluka panchayat a decade ago. The BJP leadership wanted to field farmer leader Jayanti Dhol, but with opposition building within, the party gave the seat to alliance partner Janata Dal and the ticket went to industrialist Madhusudan Donga. Mahipatsinh defeated Donga by around 10,000 votes and relegated the Congress to third position, even as Andipara alleged that Mahipatsinh’s men had facilitated bogus voting. The 1990 election was a game-changer, marking the end of the Congress era in Gujarat with thte Janata Dal winning the highest number of seats at 70, the BJP getting a solid toehold at 67 seats and Congress falling to 33 seats.

And Mahipatsinh became the first Kshatriya and only the second non-Patidar to win the Gondal seat. Barring the 1962 election, when Vajubhai Shah had won on a Congress ticket, only Patidars had won the seat in six elections to the seat till 1985.

Mahipatsinh’s grip over Gondal continued to tighten from then on. A designated TADA court acquitted Aniruddhsinh in 1994, with many key witnesses turning hostile. The following year, the BJP went on to win 121 seats and formed a government in Gujarat for the first time. But Mahipatsinh retained Gondal as an Independent, defeating Ramesh Sojitra of the BJP by around 10,000 votes, while former Lok Sabha member, Ramaben Mavani of Congress came in third, as the BJP and Congress struggled to find an answer to the Kshatriya leaders’ dominance.

Three years later, the BJP found what they were looking for in Jayrajsinh Jadeja, son of Temubha Jadeja, the former president of the Kotda Sangani taluka panchayat. They pitched Jayrajsinh, a Kshatriya, against Mahipatsinh in the Assembly election early in 1998, a move apparently suggested by Dhol, say sources. The Congress fielded Chandrakant Khunt, a Patidar. By then Jayrajsinh was facing murder charges of a gatekeeper at a magician’s show in Gondal, and ran the Shakti Group, a group of strongmen that had close ties with Mahipatsinh’s Ribda Group till the early 1990s, when Jayrajsinh was named in the alleged murder of Gondal police sub-inspector Lakshman Chavda.

The BJP’s decision to field Jayrajsinh from Gondal, which was won by Keshubhai Patel in 1980, started the duel between the two strongmen. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court overturned the trial court’s verdict in the Sorathiya murder case and convicted Aniruddhsinh in July 1997, awarding him rigorous life imprisonment. But instead of surrendering, Aniruddhsinh slipped underground. In the March 1998 election, held following the dissolution of the Assembly by Shankersinh Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Party and Congress alliance rebel government, Jayrajsinh defeated Mahipatsinh by more than 28,000 votes. Khunt was far behind getting only 4.32 per cent voteshare.

After remaining on the run for almost three years, Aniruddhsinh eventually surrendered in April 2020 to serve life imprisonment.

In the 2002 election, Mahipatsinh tried to make a comeback and fought election on an NCP ticket. He suffered his second straight defeat at the hands of Jayrajsinh, losing by more than 14,000 votes.

However, Jayrajsinh was arrested for the alleged murders of BJP workers Nilesh Raiyani and Vinu Shingala, both Patidars, in February and April, 2004. Having angered the Patidar community, Jayrajsinh faced a stern test in the 2007 Assembly election. However, Mahipatsinh decided to contest election from Babra in Amreli this time as a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Eventually, Chandu Vaghasiya, a Patidar contesting on an NCP ticket defeated Jayrajsinh by 488 votes in Gondal, while Mahipatsinh lost his third straight election as he came third in Babra, a seat won by Bavku Undhad, a Patidar from Congress.

After the hattrick of defeats, Mahipatsinh more or less withdrew from public life. However, he hit the headlines in March 2018 for allegedly assaulting a group of probationary Indian Forest Service officers who had halted at a petrol pump near his residence in Ribda while returning from a study tour to Gir forest. He was booked and arrested subsequently. Mahipatsinh had later alleged that the officers were urinating near his residence and had accused police of not registering his complaint.

In the 2022 Assembly election, Aniruddhsinh, who is out of jail after his sentence was remitted, lobbied the BJP, saying he would “end gunda gardi in Gondal”. But the BJP ignored the overtures and repeated Geetaba. After this, Aniruddhsinh extended his support to the Congress but Geetaba retained her seat.

Two weeks after election results were announced, Aniruddhsinh, his two sons and three other men of Ribda were booked for allegedly assaulting a farmer of Ribda village. The farmer had rushed to Jayrajsinh’s residence in Gondal. Later on, Jayrajsinh, who is out on bail, held a public meeting in Ribda, declaring he was “the same Jayrajsinh of 1998 vintage, and was afraid of none”. He also said, “I salute the Leuva Patel community who stood behind me and gave me lead from this village, back in the day when Mahipatsinh was enjoying his decade,” as he warned Kshatriyas of Gondal not to become henchmen of Dhol and Aniruddhsinh.

With Jayrajsinh’s great rival Mahipatsinh no more, that warning will most probably go to waste.