Keshubhai woos Patels of Saurashtra

With just a few days left for the elections in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking up to its senior leader and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel to win over the Patels and the farmers in the state.

Keshubhai's primary responsibility will be nurture BJP's voter base in Saurashtra and Kutch regions. The party had lost several seats in the area in the last Assembly elections.

Babulal Bokhiria lost from Porbandar, Mulubhai Bera from Jamnagar, Devanand Solaki from Junagadh, Fakirbhai Vaghela from Surendranagar and Puusottam Rupala lost from Amreli in the Assembly polls to their Congress rivals. All these are guardian ministers for their districts.

To win over Patel voters, Keshubhai held a 'Car Yatra' from south Gujarat. The region is considered to be big centre for the Patel voters.

Many Patels of Saurashtra have settled in Valsad, Navsari and Surat around the diamond units. South Gujarat also provides for a big part of the funding for the election campaigns.

Keshubhai Patel is considered to be a mild face of the BJP. His programme for the elections is organised in such a way that he will cover most of the Patel dominated constituencies of Gujarat.

The BJP is also plagued by infighting within its leaders in the Saurashtra region. In Amreli, the party's MLAs Bavkubhai Undhad and Balubhai Tanti and local leader Bechar Bhadani of the Keshubhai camp are not happy by the choice of Dilip Sanghani (a supporter of state chief minister Narendra Modi) as the candidate for the Lok Sabha elections.