Election Watch | Tiranga Yatra brings to fore Patidar conundrum: BJP or AAP?

PAAS convener Alpesh Katheriya and co-convener Dharmik Malaviya, both based in Surat, led the rally on August 28. The two distanced themselves from former Hardik confidant Dinesh Bamaniya’s statement that the outfit had 23 “able Patidar leaders who could contest the Assembly elections from whichever party”.

Malaviya said, “He was with us in the Tiranga Yatra on Sunday. Without our consent, he has tweeted (about 23 Patidars contesting elections). It is his personal opinion and he is not a member of the PAAS core team. He was earlier in the core committee team of PAAS, but he left the organisation before Hardik Patel left. For the Assembly elections, we want to say that in the coming days we will organise statewide meetings with our core committee members and will later decide which party we will back.”

The ruling party is determined about ensuring that the AAP does not repeat its civic polls performance from February 2021 in which the Arvind Kejriwal-led party bagged 27 seats dominated by Patidars.

BJP MLAs Kumar Kanani (Varachha Assembly constituency) and VD Zalavadiya (Kamrej) were among the party leaders from the Patidar community seen at the Sunday rally. Kanani even carried Katheriya on his shoulders for a few metres, “showing his gesture of support to him and also send a message to the BJP party leaders”, a PAAS leader told The Indian Express.

Kanani was a junior minister for health in the Vijay Rupani government. At present, the ruling party does not have a formidable Patidar leader in Surat unlike the AAP, whose state chief Gopal Italia is from the port city. Italia is also a former PAAS leader. Sources in the BJP said the party’s failure to hold big political events in Patidar areas in Surat had allowed the AAP to gain a toehold and emerge as the main Opposition party in the Surat Municipal Corporation.

Kanani’s action at the rally, however, drew flak from the AAP. One of the Opposition party’s leaders present at the “Tiranga Yatra” said on the condition of anonymity, “We were shocked at the sight as during the last Assembly elections there was a fight between the AAP and Kumar Kanani, at his election office. A police complaint was registered at Varachha police station and a few PAAS leaders were arrested. PAAS has always had bitter relations with Kumar Kanani.” At the time, suspected PAAS members also vandalised Zalavadiya’s election office in Sarthana.

Patidar influence

The 27 seats that the AAP won in the Surat civic polls were earlier held by the Congress. But after a conflict with PAAS over ticket allocation, the grand old party ended up losing the seats, illustrating the Patidar outfit’s influence in the region. An estimated 15 lakh Patidars live in Surat city and are engaged in businesses such as diamonds, textiles, and real estate.

Patidars were earlier avid supporters of the BJP, but this took a hit during the 2015 quota movement spearheaded by Hardik. Fourteen Patidar youths were killed during the agitation and the BJP-led government slapped several cases, including sedition, on PAAS leaders. In the 2017 Assembly polls, Patidars backed the Congress, helping it win 77 of the state’s 182 Assembly seats. The BJP’s tally was 99. In Surat, the ruling party managed to keep its hold somewhat. Of the 12 Assembly seats in the city, Patidar leaders from the BJP control six. Apart from Kanani and Zalavadiya, the others are Kanti Balar (Surat North), Veenu Moradia (Katargam), Vivek Patel (Udhna), and Praveen Ghoghari (Karanj).

Among the foremost demands of PAAS are the withdrawal of cases against Patidars and jobs for the next of kin of those killed in 2015. Though several Patidar organisations of both Leuva and Kadva Patidars have made representations to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on the demands, the government “seems to be going slow”, say PAAS leaders. The outfit’s functionaries said Patel replaced Rupani as CM last year because the BJP was now looking to have Patidars on their side of the ring yet again.

But the AAP is also in contention, as the civic polls showed. An AAP leader said that for Patidars his party was the only alternative to the BJP. “The PAAS team supports AAP as they have found that to stop the BJP only the AAP is an option. They tried the Congress in 2017 but failed. They also know that the AAP’s growing popularity has left BJP leaders in the state shocked.”