PM Modi’s underwater dip in Dwarka also has a message for Ahirs

But, the push was also spiritual. Emerging out of the waters of the Arabian Sea after his dive into the waters, Modi said: “More than ‘saahas (courage)’, it was ‘shraddha (faith)’ for me.”

Taking a leaf out of his book from Ayodhya, Modi went on to invoke Lord Krishna before his address, and showered praises on the women of the Ahir community – an equivalent of Yadavs in the Hindi heartland, who see themselves as descendants of the god. Comparing the “Ahiraniyo (Ahir women)” to mothers who took the “ovarna (worries off the heads of near and dear ones)”, Modi mentioned the ‘Maha Raas’ performed by 37,000 Ahir women on December 23 and 24 last year in memory of Usha, considered the daughter-in-law of Lord Krishna.

Modi also held a roadshow where he thanked the Ahirs, a community that dominates the Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat, covering the districts of Jamnagar and Dwarka. The seat was once held by the Congress’s Vikram Madam, but it was wrested by his niece Poonam Madaam of the BJP in 2014 and retained by her in 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during scuba diving near Dwarka, Gujarat, Feb. 25, 2024. (PTI Photo)(PTI02_25_2024_000228A)

Two of the seven Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituency – Kalavad, Jamnagar Rural, Jamnagar North, Jamnagar South, Khambalia, Dwarka and Jamjodhpur – have Ahirs as MLAs. While Mulu Bera of the BJP is the MLA from Khambalia, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) Hemant Khava is the Jamjodhpur legislator.

In fact, a non-Ahir has not won the Khambalia Assembly seat since 1967.

At the same time, despite being the largest community in the Dwarka Assembly segment as well, the seat had an Ahir legislator back in 1975, in Markhi Goria. Since 1990, the MLA has been Pabuba Manek, who hails from the numerically insignificant community of Vaghers, winning it nine consecutive times – initially as an Independent, then as a Congress nominee, finally switching to the BJP in 2007.

The Sathwara (Dalwadi) community, which has the second highest numbers and also falls under OBC category, is believed to see the Ahirs as overbearing and have been loyal supporters of the BJP. With Brahmins, urban voters of Dwarka and Okha, and other smaller caste groups, the BJP and Manek have found a winning combination.

However, there is support for the Congress within the Ahirs in the Dwarka seat. Pal Ambaliya of the Gujarat Kisan Congress says: “Manek has been winning as Sathwaras, Vaghers, urban voters and Muslims vote for him. My party may have been erring in selecting the right candidate. Ahirs can be elected from here as Manek’s victory margins have been in the range of 4,000 to 7,000 votes.”

Dwarka Darshan under the waters…where the spiritual and the historical converge, where every moment was a divine melody echoing Bhagwan Shri Krishna’s eternal presence. pic.twitter.com/2HPGgsWYsS

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 25, 2024

However, he concedes that Modi’s outreach will definitely strike a chord with the community. “Around 45,000 Ahir women participated in the garba event. Modi has touched their families by showering praise on them.”

On the other hand, despite the Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat being dominated by the Patidars, both the Congress and BJP have been fielding Ahirs from here. A senior BJP leader said the party considers the seat as OBC dominated. “There are a significant number of Ahir voters in Assembly segments like Anjar, Khambhalia, Dwarka, Manavadar, Talal, Rajula and Mahuva. However, apart from Dwarka and Khambalia, the remaining Assembly seats are scattered across Kutch, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Amreli Lok Sabha seats. Hence, the party considers Jamnagar an OBC seat and fields an Ahir candidate from Jamnagar, one of the seven Lok Sabha seats falling in the Saurashtra region,” he says.

The BJP could also be aiming for the larger Yadav vote in PM Modi’s gesture of taking a dip to the mythical Dwarka city. Earlier, the party had picked Mohan Yadav in a surprise choice as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister after winning the Assembly elections in the state.