He was associated with RSS and VHP before his quota agitation in Gujarat five years back
By Abdulhafiz Lakhani. Ahmedabad
New star on the political landscape of Gujarat Congress in form young Patel leader Hardik patel is new working President of state Unit under the watchful eyes of Gandhi family.
After pursuing KHAM for more than three decades, the Congress in Gujarat has made a change in its focus and now plans to woo the Patel community into the party-fold.
About five years ago, he kicked upon a political Strom demanding reservations for job and in education for his patidar community.
As per the change of strategy, the party has appointed Hardik Patel, leader of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), as working president.
Hardik Patel thanked the party for his appointment, here on Sunday, and said he had been given the opportunity despite being from a humble background.
“As the working president of the Gujarat Congress, I have been given a challenging responsibility. It also shows the party promotes people with humble background,” he said.
“I pay my gratitude to Sonia Gandhiji and Rahul Gandhiji and the Congress. Will fight to save democracy and the Constitution. All issues related to Gujarat will be given priority and in 2022 the Congress will come back to power with two-thirds majority,” Patel tweeted.
The tactical shift towards the Patel community could be attributed to failure of the pro-KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) stand, piloted by then Chief Minister Madhav Singh Solanki, to yield the desired political result. They party failed to return to power as the Patels, who account for 12-14 per cent of votes, sided with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In the last Assembly elections, the Congress fought with zeal and help of three youngsters — Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani. Thakore later joined the BJP, but lost his seat in the by-election.
While the BJP has put at the helm Vijay Rupani, a non-Patel leader, the PAAS agitation for reservation for Patels didn”t earn much votes for the Congress.
A good indicator was the state elections that took place in December 2017. The Patidars voted for the BJP in the city of Surat, which was ground zero for Hardik Patel’s agitations. But elsewhere in Gujarat, they swung the other way, particularly in rural areas in the north and centre – in districts like Mehsana and Rajkot. This forced BJP President Amit Shah to do some quick social re-engineering, once he figured that the party’s support base of Patidars were split and many were going against them.
The BJP did door to door campaigns amongst the OBCs which formed bulk of the opposition Congress’ support base.
Now, the change in strategy may also have hassled many Congress stalwarts, to get along with them is a challenge task for Hardik patel
But Muslims do not have Hardik Patel’s advantage. Gujarat’s politics has two principal poles – the BJP and the Congress. The BJP is not an option for Muslims as its Hindutva ideology continues to target them. And why would the Congress woo Muslims when it knows it will net their votes in bulk? It would rather focus on weaning away Hindu groups from the BJP’s fold.
The real question behind his test of political strength by this new post is how much this will alter the politics of Gujarat and the ego of its Chief architects at the Centre -PM Modi and Amit Shah.
Now, he stands a good chance of being the main face of the opposition to the BJP in state when Gujarat will vote again 2022.
Incidentally, Hardik,himself was associated with right wing organisations like RSS and VHP before launching quota agitation 2015.
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad,Gujarat,India based website)
