The Hindu : National : Very little fight in Modi’s constituency

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Thursday, Dec 13, 2007
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Very little fight in Modi’s constituency

Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: If the Congress can win Maninagar, it can perhaps win any seat in the Gujarat Assembly. Though technically on paper it is supposed to be a battle of the giants, there is very little fight evident in Maninagar in the heart of Ahmedabad city.

Pitted against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking re-election from Maninagar, is the Union Minister of State for Petroleum, Dinsha Patel, contesting the seat for the first time. A four-time winner of the Nadiad Parliamentary seat, Mr. Patel had lost the 2002 Assembly elections, also for the Nadiad seat, against the BJP by a margin of over 23,000 votes.

Mr. Patel was considered the best possible choice for the Congress to challenge Mr. Modi after several of the party’s senior leaders declined to contest. Even the Congress leaders themselves do not give much chance to Mr. Patel to win the seat. And their hope that the Union Minister at least would be able to keep the Chief Minister tied down to his constituency for considerable length of time, has also proved wrong.

Carrying the entire party on his shoulder, Mr. Modi is making whirlwind tour of the State as every BJP candidate won at least one of his public meetings in their constituency. This has left very little time for Mr. Modi to concentrate in his own constituency. In fact, since he opened his election office in Maninagar the day he filed his nomination papers, Mr. Modi has not paid even one visit to his constituency so far. Only towards the closing days of the campaigning that ends of Friday, the chief minister is scheduled to address a couple of meetings in his own constituency.

In contrast, Mr Patel is almost spending all the time in the constituency along with a host of his friends and supporters coming from Nadiad and engaged in door-to-door campaign, personal contacts and sending appeals to his voters on post-cards. During his entire public life, the 70-year old Mr Patel is known for his meticulous exercise to answer every post-card he receive from his voters, like Mr Modi is claimed to be very particular in replying back to all his e-mails.

Taking advantage of dissatisfaction among a section of the “Patel” voters against the BJP, particularly due to the rebellion by the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, against Mr. Modi’s leadership, the Congress was keen to put up a “Patel” candidate to ensure that the Chief Minister at least was not given a walk-over. One of the dominating communities in the constituency is of the “Patels” holding over 42,000 votes in the electorate of 3.08 lakh voters. Only the Dalits with over 52,000 votes constitute the larger constituency than the “Patels” in Maninagar, but since the backward classes are also supposed to be unhappy with Mr. Modi’s development plank, which it claim, had only benefited the rich industrialists, the Congress hope to corner all Dalit votes besides the 11,000 odd Muslim votes in the constituency, about 9,000 Christian votes and nearly 24,000 votes of the non-Gujarati migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other northern states.

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