Newsmaker | As an old rival returns, Gujarat ‘giant-killer’ Paresh Dhanani answers Congress call

With Union Minister Parshottam Rupala contesting a direct election over two decades after he lost to a young Dhanani in the Assembly polls, the Congress leader is back from self-imposed political exile

With Rupala filing his nomination papers on April 16 amid protests by Kshatriyas over his allegedly derogatory remarks about the community, Dhanani plunged into his campaign the same day and is set to file his papers on Friday.

In contrast to the recent history of squabbling among Congress workers in Gujarat for election tickets, a different Congress story is unfolding in Rajkot this time. Around a dozen local leaders drove to the residence of Paresh Dhanani in Amreli on April 9 to request him to take on Parshottam Rupala of the BJP in the Lok Saba polls, two decades after his famous victory over the Union Minister.

A reluctant Dhanani, known for his oratory skills, agreed that if Rupala weathered the ongoing Kshatriya protests against him and held his ground, he would enter the poll fray against his old rival. With Rupala filing his nomination papers on April 16 amid protests by Kshatriyas over his allegedly derogatory remarks about the community, Dhanani plunged into his campaign the same day and is set to file his papers on Friday.

“Of late, Patidars cutting across party lines are acting in a partisan manner, giving top priority only to the interests of their community. Dhanani is among a handful of mild-mannered Patidars who are not openly casteist, and is hence acceptable to non-Patidars,” said a senior Congress leader.

Dhanani had his first brush with politics in 1989 when he was still in school. “Sanjay Gajera, a local Congress worker, noted that my handwriting was good. So, before the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, he took me to the Congress office to write voters’ slips. I slipped into politics from then on,” said the 47-year-old, adding that former Congress MPs from Amreli, Navinchandra Ravani and Manu Kotadia, had a big influence on him.

While in college, Dhanani formed the Students’ Cultural Group of Amreli, a forum for students to organise various programmes and events. In 1997, he founded Parivartan Trust, an organisation he still runs. The following year, he was appointed president of the Amreli district unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress.

In 2002, the Congress gave him a ticket to contest the Assembly election from Amreli, pitting him against Rupala who was then the Gujarat agriculture minister in Narendra Modi’s state Cabinet. “Amreli was categorised by the Congress under its internal ‘C’ group as the party hadn’t managed to win it since 1972. However, we managed to win that election,” said Dhanani, who was 26 years old when he defeated Rupala, then a three-time sitting MLA and a rising star in the BJP.

After the defeat, Rupala, who belongs to the Kadva Patel sub-caste of Patidars, did not contest a direct election for the next 21 years. He became a Rajya Sabha member and was the Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the Narendra Modi government.

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“Rupala used to say in his election meeting that Paresh is a child who should still be drinking milk and that by the time he would complete visiting 72 villages under the Amreli Assembly constituency, the elections would be over. However, we had an army of around 10,000 students who rallied against Rupala and defeated him,” said Dhanani’s younger brother Sharad, a businessman.

Dhanani, who belongs to the Leuva Patel sub-caste of Patidars, however, could not keep up his winning ways and lost the 2007 election to the BJP’s Dilip Sanghani who had been a dominant political figure in Amreli since the early 1980s and is a close friend of Rupala. Five years later, Dhanani avenged the defeat by defeating Sanghani, a fellow Leuva Patel who was then the agriculture minister in the Modi state Cabinet.

Successes and setbacks

The Congress subsequently gave Dhanani charge of Bihar, where he played a crucial role in the Opposition Mahagathbandhan’s victory in the 2015 Assembly polls. The following year, He also served as coordinator for the West Bengal Assembly elections in which Congress managed to win 44 seats.

In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, which were held in the backdrop of the Patidar quota stir, Dhanani emerged as the key Congress face in the state. The Congress-led alliance won 82 seats, the party’s best-ever showing in Gujarat in more than two decades. But it still fell short of the majority by nine seats. The BJP’s tally shrunk to 99, its worst showing since 1995. Dhanani was appointed the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, becoming the first Patidar to serve as the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly since Chimanbhai Patel in 1985.

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But the momentum fizzled out along with the Patidar quota stir and the terrain became difficult for the Congress and Dhanani. He lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election to sitting Amreli MP Naran Kachhadiya as the BJP completed a clean sweep of all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state for the second time. Dhanani’s resignation as CLP leader was accepted in December 2021 and the following year he lost the Assembly polls from Amreli.

After this defeat, Dhanani more or less withdrew to his farm on the border of the Gir forest in Amreli. Earlier this month, Dhanani told The Indian Express that he had decided not to contest this Lok Sabha election as his family needed his time. Then came the party’s call to take on Rupala, over two decades years after his famous victory in the Assembly election. And once again, he responded.