Lok Sabha polls: Rupala's remark controversy in air but missing on ground

BJP may be the frontrunner in Rajkot but Cong is counting on the ruling party's 'mistakes and failures'

Afternoons are for siesta in the princely town of Rajkot and shoppers are just about trickling in before sundown at the popular Bangdi Bazaar, known for shimmery bangles of all kinds. This artificial jewellery bazaar leads up to other shopping destinations, for clothes, food, utensils, and more. Wedding season, mostly October-January, is when shopkeepers are the busiest on the lanes here.

Barely five-minute walk from the Gandhi Museum, which was Alfred School when Mahatma Gandhi had studied there for a few years, the marketplace does not reflect the Rajput-Kayasth unrest reportedly brewing in the Saurashtra region, especially in the Rajkot constituency. Not on the face of it, at least.
 

 

Aniket at Narendra Bangles, one of the biggest in that area, is hesitant to talk about the Lok Sabha elections or politics.

“Everything is fine here. This is the best state, unlike others…,’’ he says, opening up the boxes of bangles in an effort to sell.

Nearby at Saundarya, Vimal Mehta is less tight-lipped. He expresses his expectation of lower taxes. He’s referring to income tax, as well as goods and services tax (GST). But Mehta is clear that the Narendra Modi government will return to power and that he should. On an adjoining lane, a shop selling wedding clothes has been idle for a while. “We get brisk business only in the wedding season,’’ says the shop owner but withdraws from any conversation on the challenges for traders. “Sau taka (100 per cent) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be back,’’ he says with complete confidence. Interestingly, most businesses are aware of the recent controversy in Saurashtra that the main Opposition party, Congress, looks to cash in on, but they dismiss it as a non-event.

 

The man in question, the 69-year-old Union minister of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries, Parshottam Rupala, talks to Business Standard about how the Opposition has used his comment to exploit the opportunity. Rupala, the BJP candidate from Rajkot, had opened a Pandora’s box recently by saying that erstwhile maharajas had succumbed to the persecutions of foreign rulers, including the British.
 

Rupala, who was a Rajya Sabha member and is contesting Lok Sabha elections for the first time, says: “Please meet voters and ask yourself,’’ when asked if people in Rajkot are upset with him and the BJP. “It’s not true at all, only a ground zero check will reveal the truth,’’ he says emphatically. But does he have any regret about his recent comment that sparked a row in the election season? “It was not good. I have already given a public apology for that.’’ He adds that “people will vote for the BJP, there’s no doubt about it. The BJP will repeat its prior success by bagging all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, rather comfortably.’’ Rupala argues that the Opposition created a negative environment after the remark.     

    
 

Mukul Wasnik, Congress general secretary in charge of Gujarat, who’s shuttling between towns ahead of the elections, told this newspaper that his party is placed quite well. He points out that the expected Congress tally is at least 10 seats in Gujarat. “Earlier the BJP campaign was talking about a win with a wide margin in the state. Now such talk has evaporated…,’’ Wasnik says.
 

Wasnik’s colleague Shaktisinh Gohil, president of the Congress in Gujarat, is optimistic. “We have got a good response in the state. Unfortunately in 2014 and 2019, we didn’t get a single seat in Gujarat. But this time will be different… There have been a series of mistakes and failures by the BJP….’’ He adds that the Congress would deliver on its manifesto promises.   
        

There are about 150,000 Rajput voters out of a total of 2.3 million in Rajkot. Apart from Rajputs, Patidars, too, will have a role to play when Gujarat goes to polls on May 7. Both BJP and Congress candidates (Rupala and Pareshbhai Dhanani) belong to the Patidar community from the Amreli district, thereby triggering a fight. Dhanani, 47, who comes from the Leuva Patidar community, which is believed to have a stronger foothold in the Saurashtra region, had won Assembly seats in 2012 and 2017 but lost to the BJP in 2022. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Dhanani had lost to the BJP candidate from Amreli.      
 

The Rajkot contest is among the most watched in Gujarat because of many reasons. The BJP has won from here continuously since 1989 with the only exception of 2009. Also, the party dropped its two-time MP Mohan Kundariya this time and nominated Rupala. More than anything else, there’s a connection with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here. Around 22 years ago, Modi stepped into the Gujarat Legislature as an MLA for the first time and won a by-election from the Rajkot II constituency.