Once the last word in Gujarat, Anandiben Patel struggling to maintain her relevance in Party
It can be lonely, bereft of the trappings of power. Former chief minister Anandiben Patel realized this to her dismay on her birthday on November 21.
Her birthdays used to be busy days with a long retinue of ministerial colleagues, politicians, bureaucrats and all manner of VIPs trooping in to wish her. This year the former chief minister of Gujarat spent her 76th birthday in a slum near the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad. Except two or three local leaders, the crowds and the VIPs were missing from around the top BJP leader who was until 16 months ago the last word in Gujarat.
Anandiben Patel had been a cabinet minister from 1998 in the Keshubhai Patel government and continued uninterrupted under Narendra Modi to assume his charge as chief minister when he left to take over as prime minister in 2014. Prior to her joining the ministry, she was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 1998 and had quit the seat to contest the Vidhan Sabha elections.
She and current BJP president Amit Shah have been the closest confidantes of Modi right from his chief ministerial days.
However, both have been sworn rivals in the internal politics of the BJP. Even after she quit as chief minister, her importance remained undiminished and she was a regular feature at all engagements of prime minister Modi in Gujarat whether it was the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors summit, or the prime ministerial office briefing after the aerial survey of the flood affected areas of north Gujarat.
Her announcement that she would not contest the ensuing Vidhan Sabha elections in Gujarat saw her political stock plummet.
The announcement was made, reportedly under instructions from Delhi. It led to large scale desertions to the rival Shah camp, no sooner it was realized that she may not be able to push for a ticket for her supporters. Proof of it came when most of her erstwhile camp followers failed to figure in the first list of BJP candidates. With Shah now in full command, Ms Patel is being sidelined and ignored at party meetings.
Aware of it, she too keeps to herself, doing only what she is asked to. Nevertheless, the bone of contention is the still to be declared last 11 seats of Ahmedabad.
The announcement is expected any moment now because Monday is the last day for filing nominations. The most watched seats will be those of Ghatlodia (Anandiben Patel) and Naranpura (Amit Shah).
The selection of names and their camps will provide the indication of the power being wielded by the powerful as of this day.
Nevertheless, such is the fickle nature of present day politics. King one day, lost in the crowd, the next.
POLITICS AND MONEY Related to the famous business family of the Ambanis, long term minister and present BJP candidate from Botad, Saurabh Patel’s assets more than doubled to Rs 135 crores in his present Assembly term, off course this clubs the income of his wife Ilaben as well. It was Rs 66 crores in 2012.
Their movable assets stand at Rs 67.87 crores, with his own movable assets standing at Rs 49 crores and those in his wife’s name at Rs 20 crores. The income disclosed by him stand at Rs 1.06 crores for the fiscal year 2016-17 which is lower than the Rs 1.14 crores he had disclosed during 2011-12.
Following close behind Saurabh Patel, is Dhanjibhai Makasana, the BJP candidate from Surendranagar. He has disclosed an income of Rs 3.90 crores in 2016-17 while his total assets including those of his wife stand at Rs 115.30 crores.
Then off course, there is the case of BJP legislator Nimaben Acharya who is a candidate of the party from Bhuj. Nimaben has aged only three years in the last five years. Or so her affidavit filed alongside her nomination papers state. The anomaly of age was spotted by her Congress rival Adam Chaki who took no time in distributing copies of her affidavit. In the 2012 affidavit, she had stated her age as 66 while this time it is 69. Chaki has knocked the doors of the Election Commission.
FETISH FOR VEHICLES Politicians in power seem to have a fetish for vehicles. Dharmendrasinhji Jadeja, the BJP candidate for Jamnagar(north), who recently switched sides has 60 vehicles totally valued at Rs 8.75 crores while Congress candidate Indranil Rajyaguru contesting against chief minister Vijay Rupani in Rajkot(west) has 15 vehicles totally valued at Rs 28 crores including a Lamborghini worth over Rs 4 crores. Jawahar Chavda, Congress candidate from Manavadar owns 15 vehicles worth Rsn1.23 crores and Pabubha Manek, BJP candidate from Dwarka 8 of them worth Rs 2.29 crores.
VARUN GETS LUCKY Varun Patel, a spokesperson for the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS), finds himself in a piquant situation after he switched sides to the BJP. No sooner that he joined the BJP he has been appointed one of the spokespersons for the ruling party which is in election mode.
Only until last month he was fulminating and mouthing invectives against the BJP and now is set to do a summersault as the BJP get ready to defend its turf using one of their own against them. But even before this could happen, the PAAS publicity machine has gone to work churning out all the speeches and clips of Varun against the BJP. To set a thief to catch a thief can work bothways.