Gandhinagar: The Patidars, being a financially sound and united community, are pressurising the political parties to give the maximum number of seats to the community in the upcoming Assembly elections. This arm twisting is uniting the other castes on a few seats, say political analysts. They also strongly believe that it can’t vertically divide the voters or unite other castes across the state.
On Thursday, the Junagadh and Gir Somnath Kadva Patidar meeting took place in Junagadh. Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting Kadva Patidar leader Jairam Patel demanded that each political party should nominate at least 12 Kadva Patidar candidates, a sub caste of the Patidars that dominate these seats.
He even threatened the political parties, “Nothing will go wrong if you do as we say, otherwise we will show our power.”
According to Gujarat’s census, the Patidar population in the state is 12 to 14 per cent, and they dominate on 39 seats. In 2012, 29 Patidars got elected as MLAs on the BJP symbol. In 2017, 23 were elected whereas on the Congress symbol 8 Patidar MLAs were elected in 2012, two on the GPP symbol. In 2017, 16 Patidars won from the Congress.
Since the last few years, the Patidars have learned these pressure tactics. It is not about representation in the assembly but more about community leadership. But, political parties and politicians are street smart, in the name of social engineering they are not surrendering under such pressure, is the observation of political analyst Krushnakant Jha.
His observation is that the Patidars’ arm twisting is uniting the other communities on a few seats in North Gujarat, but due to the political divide such unity is not visible across the state.
The words of Patidars and their leaders are taken seriously by the media and a hype is created because the community is financially powerful and uses money for the marketing of its leaders. The community leaders are making noises to influence the community more than the politicians, is the reading of veteran journalist Jagdish Mehta.
Their constant demand for more seats does unite the other communities, but it is not that effective. The others do unite but that is visible only on limited seats, while polarisation across the state is neither viable or thinkable, he observed.
–IANS
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