Caste makes a comeback as key swing factor
AHMEDABAD: The BJP and the Congress might be talking about jobs and development at their campaign rallies but caste has emerged as a significant factor in Gujarat after years and might decide the fate of the assembly election in December.
Both parties have been locked in a fight to attract influential castes, of which many are staunch supporters of the BJP who have grown disenchanted with the party. In focus are three young men – Patidar leader Hardik Patel, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor and Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani.
At the core of the renewed caste politics are the Patidars, a traditionally BJP-supporting community that accounts for 12% of the state’s 60 million population and holds influence in at least 60 of the 182 seats.
The Patidars, led byHardik Patel, hit the streets in July 2015, demanding OBC status that would result in quotas in jobs and education. This community of farmers, diamond barons and some of the biggest industrialists in Gujarat — who saw a fall in fortune in recent decades as agriculture declined — has moved away from the BJP.
The impact was immediate. In the local body polls in December that year, the BJP suffered losses across the countryside with its kitty of panchayats more than halving. The party won just 73 panchayats compared to the Congress’ 132.
The loss, experts say, made the BJP realise that caste dynamics in the state were shifting and the Patidars — who shifted to the saffron party in the 80s — were now a fractured votebase.
In 1980, the Congress stitched together a rainbow coalition—called KHAM for Kshatriya, Harijan (Dalits), Adivasi (Tribals) and Muslims—that brought together nearly 40% of the state’s population and helped former chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki come to power.
“But the move was instrumental in pushing Patidars, who were then emerg- ing as the economic backbone of the state, towards the BJP,” says political analyst Hari Desai. “Since then, this is the first election when caste equations are clearly at the forefront.”
In 2002, the BJP won its biggest-ever victory under then chief minister Narendra Modi. The election was held in the aftermath of the 2002 riots. “If the communal divide dominated the polls in 2002 held in backdrop of communal riots, Modi made efforts to change the narra- tive to development issues in subsequent polls. But this time, the caste equations are back as the central idea,” said analyst Achyut Yagnik.
This time, the Patidar movement, counter-protests by a section of the OBCs and agitations by Dalits against atrocities have brought caste to the fore.
Both parties know this. The Congress is trying to revive KHAM while the BJP is trying to placate the Patidars.
On October 23, when Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi started his speech in Gandhinagar with slogans of Jai Mataji (Kshatriyas), Jai Sardar (Patidars) and Jai Bhim (Dalits), it was seen as a bid to invoke KHAM, but with an addition of P (Patidar). The same stage was also a platform for the formal induction of Alpesh Thakor into Congress. But his addition might not go down well with the Patidars because Thakor emerged on Gujarat’s political scene floating his strong opposition to granting Patidars an OBC tag.
The BJP has withdrawn nearly 400 police cases against Patidar youth registered after violent protests by the community to push for their quota demand.
The BJP has formed a commission as well as a corporation to look after various needs of the non-reserved castes. But the party still hasn’t been able to devise a strategy for the state’s Dalits, who are angry after a surge in atrocities, especially the flogging of scheduled caste men by cow vigilantes in Una last year.
The Congress has gone all out to woo Jignesh Mevani with its state in-charge Ashok Gehlot saying he had a good meeting with the Dalit leader this week.