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Journalism of Courage
At an Express Adda event in Ahmedabad on September 29, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had dared Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani, who emerged as a leader of Dalit forces in the aftermath of the Una flogging incident, and Alpesh Thakor, an OBC leader who took on the BJP government in the state over its prohibition policy and unemployment, to contest elections. While they were getting traction in their rallies, Rupani said, elections would show the real measure of their popularity.
Less than three months later, two of them — Mevani and Thakor — emerged winners in the assembly elections on Monday. Hardik, at 23, is short of the minimum age to contest elections. His relentless campaigning, asking people to “vote out the BJP”, however, is seen as having added to the Congress’s score in Patidar-dominated seats in Saurashtra.
Mevani won from Vadgam, defeating his nearest BJP rival, Vijay Chakravarti, by 19,696 votes. Thakor emerged victorious from Radhanpur, trouncing BJP’s Lavingji Thakor by 14,857 votes. Both constituencies are in Banaskantha district, where the BJP had hoped to make inroads after Rupani camped there for five days in the aftermath of the floods, and the Central and state governments together announced a relief package adding up to Rs 1,500 crore for Banaskantha and Patan districts. About Hardik, a senior Congress worker said, “He has supported the Congress immensely in this election. The party will definitely stand by Hardik if he faces any adversarial action from the BJP government.”
The BJP sought to play down the impact of the trio, and the alliance with the Congress. Asked about the impact and influence of the three young leaders, BJP spokesperson Jagdish Bhavsar said, “We have the support of all sections of the society. So we are forming the government once more.” Many in the Opposition, however, see this as a powerful alliance that the Congress would want to nurture for the 2019 General Elections — thanks to social media, their voices, especially that of Hardik and Mevani, have reached outside Gujarat’s periphery.
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Mevani, who came to national limelight after a Dalit family from Una was publicly flogged last year by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow, had fought as an Independent candidate backed by the Congress, which moved its sitting MLA, Manilal Vaghela, to Idar in Sabarkantha district. Vaghela lost to young Gujarati film actor Hitu Kanodiya of the BJP.
A vehement critic of the BJP and the RSS’s policies, Mevani is expected to be a strong voice against the government and the ruling party in the assembly. On Monday, he told The Indian Express: “It is devastating that despite all our efforts, the BJP will form the government. But I must say that whoever fought the elections — be it Dalits, Patidars, tribals, or ASHA workers — the fight has been incredible, and we are going to take it forward.”
About his plans as a first-time MLA, Mevani said, “I will explore electoral politics further. At the same time, we will try to bring all the oppressed communities of the country on a stage to defeat the BJP in 2019.” The new MLA said he would hand over a memorandum to the Banaskantha collector in Palanpur to get Vadgam’s roads repaired. “The roads are so bad that ambulances cannot enter villages,” Mevani said. Thakor came to the centrestage in 2015 as an OBC youth leader who, interestingly, stood up against the Hardik-led Patidar quota agitation. But he gradually shifted his movement as one against open violation of prohibition and unemployment among youth.
