The stage is set for the battle for Gujarat, and all eyes are on the Patidar-dominated Mehsana district.
In its first list of candidates for the December assembly elections, the BJP named Nitin Patel from Mehsana. Patel was elected from Mehsana in the 2012 Assembly elections. The Congress, on the other hand, fielded Jivabhai Patel – a former MP from the Mehsana constituency who defeated Nitin Patel in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
Nitin Patel was a close confidante of former chief minister Anandiben Patel and was a key negotiator for the BJP during the Patidar agitation that engulfed the state from July 2015 onwards.
In fact, Nitin Patel was the frontrunner for the top job till the last minute when Vijay Rupani, a close aide of Amit Shah was made the chief minister of Gujarat. Instead, Nitin Patel was made the deputy chief minister in a move that political pundits claim was taken to placate the Patidar vote bank.
However, the way the BJP government has handled the Patidar agitation has left the Patel community fuming.
Mehsana is home to 28 percent Patidars and was the epicenter of the Patidar movement that started in 2015.
The very first rally was called by Lalji Patel in the town of Mehsana on 6 July 2015. The agitation picked up pace across the state and led to the Patidar Maharally in Ahmedabad on 25 August 2015, which later sparked rioting and curfew across the state.
Mehsana came into the limelight yet again when two youths were killed in police firing a day after the Ahmedabad Maharally. Now, with elections just days away, the mood at Mehsana is peaking against the BJP.
While a number of people The Quint spoke to refused to express their dissatisfaction with the ruling BJP on record, they were quick to dismiss the Saffron party off record. We remember the violence that was perpetrated against the Patidars in Mehsana, a voter said.
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