Patel-split wide open in search of new sardar

SURAT: Dozens of motorbikes throb, rev and zoom. Varacha road in Surat explodes in noise and tumult as Patidar leader Hardik Patel begins his road show. Sporting bright yellow caps, waving flags, some wielding cardboard ploughs to emphasise their farming roots, thousands of Patidar youths roar in unison, "Jai Sardar, Jai Patidar".

As Hardik's motorcade rumbles forward, youths begin to sprint past, trying not to lose sight of him. "Jai Bhawanee, BJP Jawanee" yells 23 year old Shardul Patel, "this time the BJP will lose and the janta will win in Gujarat." The crowd screams again again, the song `kuch kar le' from Chak De India blares out, hundreds of phones are held aloft, youths with Hardik's face on their T shirts stream past, clambering onto Hardik's truck or shinning up trees to wave flags.

The crowd here is overwhelmingly young and almost entirely male each with a mobile phone, yellow cap and a red tilak on his forehead.

Some PAAS members also tore banners and posters of BJP near their campaign offices and residences at many places. Banners of Vinu Moradiya, the BJP candidate from Katargam, were torn near his house while those of Kanti Balar, BJP candidate from Surat North seat were torn outside his campaign office.

Tight security was deployed outside the office of Varachha MLA Kishore alias Kumar Kanani. Buses of paramilitary forces were parked in front of his office.

"If we are fighting for reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the past two years, it means that we are facing serious problems. Unemployment is a major concern," said Mitul Patel, one of the PAAS rally members. "The BJP's Hindutva is no longer undefeatable, "says Mahadev Patel, an unemployed mechanical engineer. "We are patidars and we are the real Hindus," "were the 14 people who died not Hindus? The BJP talks about Hindutva but doesn't practice it." (A reference to the 14 Patel youth who died in police firing in during the 2015 agitation for reservations).

There are 12 assembly seats in Surat city, of which the BJP won all in 2012. But with Patidars dominant in 5 of those seats, (in Varacha, Patidars make up more than 70 per cent of the population) the Congress is banking on Hardik to wrest at least half a dozen seats from the BJP. Why have so many youths joined Hardik's road show? "I am an engineer," says Abhayraj Jhala, "I spent lakhs on my education but I will not get a job worth even 5000 rupees a month. That's why I want reservations." `Kisano ka neta, bharat ka nirmata, Sardar Patel,' shouts the crowd, many of them sporting Sardar Patel badges. Groups of patidar women also gather in front of their homes to wave Hardik on. Do they regard him a credible leader? "We are unhappy at the way things have turned out, " they say, "we used to get more money for the weaving work we did in textiles, now we don't get enough."

There are many however who are skeptical of Hardik and do not see him as a credible figure. Among older Patidars the sentiment is voiced that Hardik has gone straight from bicycle to Mercedes and is only being propped up by disgruntled elements within the BJP. "Hardik has pockets of support," says Surat based journalist Faysal, "but he's hardly a pan Gujarat figure and the strong organization of the BJP is what will get voters to the polling booth."

by via Surat News, Latest Surat News Headlines & Live Updates - Times of India