Will the Patel reservation demand impact Anandiben govt in October polls? The Patel community has been vociferously demanding the status of OBC and benefits of reservation under it in govt jobs
Will the Patel reservation demand impact Anandiben govt in October polls?
The Patel community has been vociferously demanding the status of OBC and benefits of reservation under it in govt jobs
The BJP government in Gujarat led by chief minister
Anandiben Patel, may have to tread a bit carefully before the local
body elections slated for October. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
Ahmedabad: With the powerful and dominant Patel community’s
demand for reservation in government jobs becoming louder, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat led by chief minister
Anandiben Patel, may have to tread a bit carefully before the local body
elections slated for October.
Earlier this week, the Gujarat government issued a notification, making voting compulsory in the forthcoming municipal and panchayat polls becoming the first state in the country to do so. Local body polls for 253 municipalities, 208 taluka panchayats, 26 district panchayats and six municipal corporations will be held in October this year.
Out of about 120 BJP MLAs in Gujarat, 40 are from the Patel community, including Saurabh Patel, Nitin Patel, Purshottam Rupala and the chief minister herself.
The community, under a recently floated outfit called Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, has been vociferously demanding the status of other backward class (OBC) and benefits of reservation under it in government jobs.
However, a Supreme Court’s guideline states that there shouldn’t be more than 50% reservation in any state, said a senior BJP official, on conditions of anonymity. Gujarat has already reached that mark, he added.
The leader said that the government’s recruitment drive for permanent posts last year, in which several Patels felt left out, had led to the demand.
The group has held 15 rallies since June, and the agitation is likely to intensify with plans to hold 52 more such rallies in the next 10 days. “On 22 August, we will hold a massive rally on the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad wherein we expect about 20 lakh people to join our fight. Our children are left out during admission in colleges despite securing high marks due to reservation. We want to end this inequality for our community,” said Hardik Patel, member of the Patidar Samiti.
The outfit has so far enrolled about 14 lakh Patidar or Patel members. Hardik claims the outfit has no political affiliations.
However, last week, an agitating mob of Patels ransacked the office of Visnagar’s BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel’s office, considered to be very close to the chief minister.
A Times of India report on 26 July said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah have sought a report from the state government on the Patidar community’s rallies, and on the violence that took place at the Visnagar rally.
According to the BJP leader quoted earlier, the Patel agitation could impact the party’s vote bank in some rural areas. However, he was confident that the movement will fizzle out soon.
Another BJP leader said that if the movement was apolitical, as it seems to be, then the government has to be cautious that it does not become another Navnirman Movement.
The Navnirman Movement was initiated in 1974-75 when college students protested against hike in their food mess bill. It snowballed into a state-wide movement, first against high prices and then against corruption, forcing then chief minister Chimanbhai Patel, who belonged to the Congress party, to resign.
“There is little basis for the Patel community’s sudden demand. They are prosperous, hold powerful positions both in the government and private sectors, have family members settled overseas and dominate the agriculture and co-operative sector. It is still not clear if BJP’s internal politics is at play. There is definitely something more than what meets the eye,” said Achyut Yagnik, a political observer.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the party was not supporting the Patel community’s demand. “Patels who are the backbone of the development model of Gujarat which the BJP is projecting are today asking for reservation. They held a dominant position in various industries be it pharma, diamond or textile. It means something is not right with BJP’s development model. For about 20 years BJP is ruling Gujarat and Patels form their major vote bank. It is for the BJP to come up with an explanation as to what went wrong,” he said.
Former Gujarat chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki swept the state assembly elections in 1985 with his Kshatriya Harijan Adivasi Muslim (KHAM) combination in 1985 side-lining the Patel community. Following this, the Patels became a strong base for the BJP.
While Patel leaders claim that they form about 25% of the voters in Gujarat, Yagnik says they constitute about 14%. The Patidar community comprises Lehuva, Kadva and Anjana Patels.
The Anjana Patels who form a very small part of the Patel community and reside mainly in north Gujarat fall in the reservation category, said Yagnik.
Another BJP member said that many in the party were not happy about the way senior Patel leaders were side-lined after Anandiben Patel was handed over the reins of Gujarat in 2014 by Modi.
In 2012, former chief minister Keshubhai Patel left BJP to form a new outfit called Gujarat Parivartan Party ahead of the assembly elections. He is credited with building the BJP’s Patel vote bank in Gujarat. However, the newly formed party managed to bag only three out of the 182 assembly seats. Later, he ironed out differences with BJP leaders and re-joined the party.
Earlier this week, the Gujarat government issued a notification, making voting compulsory in the forthcoming municipal and panchayat polls becoming the first state in the country to do so. Local body polls for 253 municipalities, 208 taluka panchayats, 26 district panchayats and six municipal corporations will be held in October this year.
Out of about 120 BJP MLAs in Gujarat, 40 are from the Patel community, including Saurabh Patel, Nitin Patel, Purshottam Rupala and the chief minister herself.
The community, under a recently floated outfit called Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, has been vociferously demanding the status of other backward class (OBC) and benefits of reservation under it in government jobs.
However, a Supreme Court’s guideline states that there shouldn’t be more than 50% reservation in any state, said a senior BJP official, on conditions of anonymity. Gujarat has already reached that mark, he added.
The leader said that the government’s recruitment drive for permanent posts last year, in which several Patels felt left out, had led to the demand.
The group has held 15 rallies since June, and the agitation is likely to intensify with plans to hold 52 more such rallies in the next 10 days. “On 22 August, we will hold a massive rally on the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad wherein we expect about 20 lakh people to join our fight. Our children are left out during admission in colleges despite securing high marks due to reservation. We want to end this inequality for our community,” said Hardik Patel, member of the Patidar Samiti.
The outfit has so far enrolled about 14 lakh Patidar or Patel members. Hardik claims the outfit has no political affiliations.
However, last week, an agitating mob of Patels ransacked the office of Visnagar’s BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel’s office, considered to be very close to the chief minister.
A Times of India report on 26 July said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah have sought a report from the state government on the Patidar community’s rallies, and on the violence that took place at the Visnagar rally.
According to the BJP leader quoted earlier, the Patel agitation could impact the party’s vote bank in some rural areas. However, he was confident that the movement will fizzle out soon.
Another BJP leader said that if the movement was apolitical, as it seems to be, then the government has to be cautious that it does not become another Navnirman Movement.
The Navnirman Movement was initiated in 1974-75 when college students protested against hike in their food mess bill. It snowballed into a state-wide movement, first against high prices and then against corruption, forcing then chief minister Chimanbhai Patel, who belonged to the Congress party, to resign.
“There is little basis for the Patel community’s sudden demand. They are prosperous, hold powerful positions both in the government and private sectors, have family members settled overseas and dominate the agriculture and co-operative sector. It is still not clear if BJP’s internal politics is at play. There is definitely something more than what meets the eye,” said Achyut Yagnik, a political observer.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the party was not supporting the Patel community’s demand. “Patels who are the backbone of the development model of Gujarat which the BJP is projecting are today asking for reservation. They held a dominant position in various industries be it pharma, diamond or textile. It means something is not right with BJP’s development model. For about 20 years BJP is ruling Gujarat and Patels form their major vote bank. It is for the BJP to come up with an explanation as to what went wrong,” he said.
Former Gujarat chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki swept the state assembly elections in 1985 with his Kshatriya Harijan Adivasi Muslim (KHAM) combination in 1985 side-lining the Patel community. Following this, the Patels became a strong base for the BJP.
While Patel leaders claim that they form about 25% of the voters in Gujarat, Yagnik says they constitute about 14%. The Patidar community comprises Lehuva, Kadva and Anjana Patels.
The Anjana Patels who form a very small part of the Patel community and reside mainly in north Gujarat fall in the reservation category, said Yagnik.
Another BJP member said that many in the party were not happy about the way senior Patel leaders were side-lined after Anandiben Patel was handed over the reins of Gujarat in 2014 by Modi.
In 2012, former chief minister Keshubhai Patel left BJP to form a new outfit called Gujarat Parivartan Party ahead of the assembly elections. He is credited with building the BJP’s Patel vote bank in Gujarat. However, the newly formed party managed to bag only three out of the 182 assembly seats. Later, he ironed out differences with BJP leaders and re-joined the party.
RESERVATION SNATCHS “RIGHT OF EQUALITY” WHICH IS BASE OF CONSTITUTION of INDIA.
Now, many people in obc, SC/ST and other reservation category people have become rich even though they get benefit of reservation.
All open category should come out for reservation so anyhow government will have to stop reservation system.