Patel pressure working on Modi?

Is Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi giving in to growing pressure? A quick look at BJP's first list of candidates makes one believe so.

Contrary to expectations, the CM, who has a track record of fielding fresh candidates has relented to the pressure from within the party as well as the powerful Patel community and has refrained from experimenting.

So if in the civic body elections held two years back, 75 percent of the candidates were new, this time around it's exactly the reverse.

Moreover, Modi has pitched 22 Patel candidates in the first list which is the highest number of candidates from the same community""the Congress on the other hand has fielded 19 members of the community. The Congress has gone for a major revamp by introducing 39 new candidates in the first list of 86 seats.

However, if the Patel community leaders are to be believed, the chances of this strategy clicking is 50:50. Most of the Patel leaders agree on one fact that there is a clear undercurrent against Modi in the community and they will vote against 'anyone' who represents Modi.

Political observers say that Modi-- sensing this wide unrest-- has succumbed to Patel pressure. Modi-- generally known to introduce new faces in the civic bodies' elections-- has retained 75 per cent of the old candidates. This again is termed as Modi succumbing to internal party pressure.

"Modi plans to pitch Patel candidates against Patel candidates of Congress. The war seems like Patel versus Patel. We have discussed this aspect in our meetings. There is a strong undercurrent against Modi in the Patel community. The war is not Patel versus Patel its Patel against Modi," said Kanji Bhalada, general secretary and a Patel leader, Saurashtra Patel Sewa Samaaj, which has strong hold over the community in terms of wealth and power.

"In Saurashtra, both the parties' focus is on the Patel community of Amreli and Rajkot-Juanagdh and Surendranagar. In any other district, the Patel vote distribution will be against Modi," he said.

Paresh Dhanani, the Congress MLA from Amreli and a member of Patel community, is also confident that Modi's strategy of pitching Patel candidates against Patels might not work as there is a general dissatisfaction against Modi in the community.

"He (Modi) has been trying to split the community in half by sidelining Keshubhai Patel and supporting the other Patel leaders. Now when it comes to pitching Patels against Patels, its not a new thing in Saurashtra's politics. Patels have been fighting members of the same community.

However, the opposing note comes from the president of Saurashtra Patel Sewa Samaj KD Vaghani, who said, "Except for the 5 per cent votes that may divert on personal capacity, there won't be any major shift in the vote distribution. The young Patel generation will only vote for development and Modi has an upper hand there. Even if there is a Patel candidate standing for Congress and a Koli candidate from BJP, young Patel voter's vote will go to Koli candidate."