BJP’s plans to win back the Patels appear to have hit a rocky patch

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempts to win back Gujarat’s powerful Patidars seem to have hit a rocky patch on Tuesday as the saffron party’s much-hyped meeting with representatives of the community in Gandhinagar did not go as planned.

The BJP’s last-minute decision to invite Patidar leader Hardik Patel to the meeting – at which they were planning to discuss the various demands of the community, which has been disgruntled with the saffron party since 2015 – seemed to backfire. While Hardik Patel came out of the meeting declaring that his Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti would continue its agitation against the BJP until it accepts their key demand for reservations in government jobs, his supporters created a ruckus at Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel’s press conference after the meeting. They stopped him from speaking to the media.

This setback at the beginning of the BJP’s three-week long exercise to woo the Patels before Gujarat goes to polls later this year comes just a day after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi embarked on an effort to reach out to the disgruntled community.

The Patidars have traditionally been loyal BJP supporters but turned bitter towards the party after an agitation demanding reservations and Other Backward Class status for the community ended with riots and a violent police crackdown in August 2015.

Hardik Patel, whose Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti committee spearheaded the protests, emerged as a powerful leader of the community at the time and has since vowed to ensure the party’s defeat in Gujarat.

Advantage Congress?

The Congress hopes to capitalise on this disillusionment to win over the politically important community. In recent months, there has been speculation that the Patidars are coming closer to the Grand Old Party.

For instance, a day before stealing the show organised by the BJP, Hardik Patel welcomed Rahul Gandhi to Gujarat with a tweet as the Congress leader started his three-day tour in the Patel-dominated Saurashtra region.

The outcome of the BJP meeting on Tuesday put a question mark on the popularity of two yatras the party had planned next month. The yatras, to be led by Nitin Patel and Gujarat BJP President Jitubhai Vaghani, both from the Patidar community, will pass through various Patidar-dominated areas in the state over more than two weeks and will culminate in a massive rally on October 15. While the first yatra will begin on October 1 from Karamsad, the birthplace of Sardar Patel, the second yatra will start on October 2 from Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi.

Retaining the support of the Patels, who account for 14% of the state’s population, will be crucial for the BJP as the community is believed to control the results of about 50 of 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat and influence the outcome in another 30.