Banners warning that the BJP will face opposition across the state if it fails to withdraw Union Minister Parshottam Rupala's candidature from Rajkot dot the narrow alleys of Rajput-dominated areas of Umreth in Anand. It is the same area where Rajput community members chased away BJP leaders who ventured for campaigning last week. Similar scenes played out in Hamidpur and Ahima villages where Kshatriya community members heckled and prevented BJP workers from campaigning for Anand Lok Sabha candidate Mitesh Patel. The protests are a manifestation of "several issues over the years" that have been bothering the Kshatriyas, say community members. Former BJP member of the Umreth Municipality, Rajwatsinh Raulji, who claims he has distanced himself from the party since the Rupala controversy, says the Kshatriya community has been hurt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the issue. “Even if Modi asks us to let go, we will ask him the reason for his silence,” he says, adding that the incident has embittered the community that had been letting go of many issues for long. "You can see a pattern in which the Kshatriyas have been sidelined. They (BJP) shunted out Kshatriya leaders in the state such as Pradeepsinh Jadeja and Bhupendra Chudasama. Nationally, even ones like VK Singh were dislodged. The number of Kshatriya candidates in the Lok Sabha polls is bare minimum. We stayed silent due to our faith in Modiji but he didn't speak a word when Rupala commented to hurt our garima (dignity),” Raulji says. Digvijaysinh Raulji, a 25-year-old Rajput, echoes similar views. "We have taken a vow by our kuldevi (patron deity) that we will crush the BJP this time for taking our community for granted. The comments made by Rupala were disgraceful but what is even more insulting is that Modi has maintained a silence on the matter instead of intervening and changing the candidate.” In Umreth, youths from the Rajput-Kshatriya community are busy coordinating for a grand meeting of several Kshatriya village leaders to secure a "vow" and begin a campaign to ensure that the community votes against the BJP this time. “The Kshatriya community in villages across the district have administered similar vows that are unbreakable,” Digvijaysinh says. About 12 kms away in Sundalpura village, the community has taken the 'vow', but admits that the Congress' doesn't "feel like home". Manu Chauhan, a farmer, says, "We have been staunch BJP supporters in our village but this time, we have decided to teach the BJP a lesson by promoting as many anti-BJP votes as possible. We have taken the pledge and are now going door-to-door to tell people to vote for the Congress. We have not identified with the Congress since long but crushing the BJP's arrogance is the only aim now." The current anger of the dominant-Kshatriyas of Anand has its roots in the rivalry with the Patel community that has been known to dominate the political dispensation of the state. Anand Lok Sabha constituency has nearly 58 per cent Kshatriya population. In the district, which had been a traditional Congress bastion until the 2022 Assembly polls, the Kshatriyas have vowed to "vote against the BJP to destroy its arrogance" - a decision that resonates across unconnected groups of the community in different parts of the constituency. Yet, they say they "do not identify" with the Congress either. Ironically, late chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki belonged to the Charotar region in Central Gujarat, which Anand is a part of. He is known for the famous KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, and Muslim) experiment that helped the Congress win a record number of seats in the Assembly in 1985 when, also banking on the sympathy wave in the aftermath of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the party won 149 of 182 seats. Solanki’s son Bharatsinh won from Anand in 2004 and 2009 and went on to become a Union minister. As villagers discuss the "caste-influenced" voting pattern of the district, they say that the Congress will benefit from fielding a Kshatriya against BJP’s Mitesh Patel. Amit Chavda is the sitting Anklav MLA is also the nephew of Madhavsinh Solanki and the grandson of five-term Lok Sabha MP from Anand, Ishwar Chavda. Kiritsinh Zala, 40, a farmer, says, "The fact that the Lok Sabha contest is between a Patel candidate of the BJP and a Kshatriya , it will definitely dent the BJP's vote share. The BJP's organisational structure in the district only has Patel leaders from top to bottom. If you see the first phase voting percentage in Uttar Pradesh, where also the Kshatriyas have been angry, it is a clear indication that there is a fatigue and the Modi wave is over”. In their campaigns, while Mitesh is sticking to the BJP's campaign pitch of a third term for Modi, Chavda has latched on to the Kshatriya anger, invoking Lord Ram as the "first and highest Kshatriya warrior". The Congress had won the seat by securing a 51.57 per cent vote share in 2009. Ten years later, the BJP’s vote share rose to 57.10 per cent, while that of the Congress declined to 39.27 per cent. The Congress has won four of the seven Lok Sabha polls in Anand after 1991. While the BJP went on to win the seat in 2014 and 2019, it was after the 2022 Assembly polls that the Congress was reduced to rubble in its bastion district when it lost Borsad, once held by Madhavsinh Solanki, for the first time in electoral history. Soon after, the BJP also took over the reins in the coveted milk cooperative, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited, popularly called Amul, which had eluded the BJP since its inception in 1946. Congress Secretary and member of the campaign committee for the district, Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan, says, "The BJP will face trouble in the Assembly sections where the Kshatriya community in Anand is dominant. The BJP has a strong base in the urban parts of the constituency that are dominated by the Patel community, but in rural Anand, it will be an uphill climb for them." BJP leaders in the district are underplaying the protests and are banking on PM Modi, who is due to address a public rally in the district next week.
