Voters in ceramic capital harden against BJP

Factory owners refuse to criticise party in public, but Patidars raise the cudgels

Chimneys that spout dense, white smoke dot the skyline on either side of National Highway 8 to Morbi, the Saurashtra town that is the ceramic tiles and wall clocks capital of India.
 
It is among the top revenue generating districts of Gujarat, with one of its lowest unemployment rates. Morbi is also an example of the failure of the so-called Gujarat model of development and, with Amreli, epicentre of the Patidar agitation.
 
The smooth highway leads to a potholed town recovering from the rainfall of Cyclone Ockhi, which on Tuesday had forced Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to cancel