by K.K.Sudarshan
Unable to pose a serious challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, the Congress is now banking on the support of civil society groups to retrieve political ground in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
Under normal circumstances, the Congress should have been the obvious beneficiary of the simmering anger among the powerful Patels and the Dalits in Gujarat as it is the main opposition party in the state.
It was expected that after Modi shifted to the Centre, the Congress will find it easier to take on the Anandiben Patel government in Gujarat which proved incapable of handling the state. The BJP has since attempted to put its house in order as it has replaced Anadiben Patel with Vijay Rupani and named Nitin Patel as the deputy chief minister.
The Patel Patidar Community in ‘jail bharo andolan’ in Gujarat
Despite this turmoil in the state and the growing disenchantment among the Patels and the Dalits with the BJP, the Congress has failed to gain any political mileage from the volatile situation primarily because it does not have any charismatic and credible state leader who will be acceptable to the electorate. Moreover, the party organisation lacks the energy and the will required to take on the ruling BJP.
As a result, the Congress has been hanging on the coat tails of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, headed by Hardik Patel, which has been leading the agitation for the implementation of its demand for quotas for Patels. Similarly, Congress is depending on the newly-floated platform Una Dalit Atachiyar Ladat Samiti (UDALS), established by Jignesh Mavani, a lawyer-turned politician, after the video clip showing the flogging of Dalits by cow protection vigilante groups went viral. While the Patel community has been battling the BJP for over a year now, the Dalits launched their agitation over two months ago. In both cases, the anger among the two caste groups is showing no sign of abating.
The Congress party realises this is the best chance it has to dethrone the BJP state government in next year’s assembly polls. But it is also aware that it lacks credibility both among the Patels and Dalits. The Congress lost the support of the Patels way back in the eighties when former chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki propouned the KHAM theory, created a new caste bloc of Kshtriyas, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims and won the state for the party.
But, in the process, the grand old party ended up alienating the Patel community which wields immense economic and political clout in Gujarat. Spurned by the Congress, the Patels have since shifted their loyalties to the BJP and have been instrumental in keeping the party in power since 1995. Though Dalits have traditionally been favourably inclined towards the Congress, they have surprisingly not warmed to the party despite its disillusionment with the BJP.
Patidars participate in “Jail Bharo Andolan” in Surat
Admitting that the Patels and the Dalits have historical reasons for not reposing trust in their party, Congress leaders said the party, therefore, took a conscious decision to maintain a low-profile in both these agitations and has instead extended tacit support to the civil society groups which are leading the movement against the BJP-led Gujarat government. According to a Congress leader, it was felt that the movements would be more effective if they were seen to be apolitical.
Howeover, the Congress has been in touch with the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel through Siddharth Patel, who is being projected as the party’s Patel face, and has been encouraging the Samiti’s protests.
Now that Hardik Patel has done all the initial spade work, the Congress has decided to come out of the shadows and make an open bid for the support of the Patels. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi held a special meeting with the party’s Patel leaders last week to chalk out a strategy to woo the powerful Patel community ahead of the next year’s assembly elections. The Patel leaders have been given responsibility of two districts each and told to induct Patel members to the party with the promise that they will be given tickets in the coming polls.
As in the case of the Patels, the Congress decided not to be upfront about its involvement in the Dalit agitation which, nevertheless, enjoys the full backing of the grand old party. K.Raju, head of the party’s scheduled caste department, recently admitted that a large number of Congress Dalit leaders and others had joined the 10-day Dalit Asmita Yatra organised recently by the civil society groups in Gujarat.
The Congress is also planning to launch an apolitical platform, called the Dalit Swabhiman Abhiyan which will work closely with civil society groups to ensure that its agitation does not run out of steam. In fact, Congress also plans to enlist the support of these activists in next year’s Uttar Pradesh assembly election where the 21 per cent scheduled caste population plays a decisive role. Known to be Rahul Gandhi’s confidant, who has been entrusted with the responsibility of drafting the Congress party’s Dalit agenda, Raju says the next step is to persuade the NGOs to align with them as it will be difficult for them to sustain their movement till the Gujarat election due in the latter half of 2017.