The politics of Chaiwala (tea vendor) is back with a bang in the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat after an objectionable tweet from the Youth Congress handle.
BJP workers are all set to take to the streets with kettle in hand on Sunday, when Narendra Modi gives his monthly Mann ki Baat address, to underscore the point that even a tea vendor can rise to become the Prime Minister in their party.
At Sunil Chai Stall, a landmark in Navsari town, 40 km from Surat, the discussion though was about changing the government every five years.
Keep them on their toes
“As it happens in Rajasthan, we should also see a change of government every five years. This way the government is accountable,” Sunil Bhai Patel, stall owner, says.
Almost immediately, Sameer Memon, a Muslim businessmen in the area, offers a counter. “You win elections if you work for the people. The BJP has worked for the people, and the party should win,” Mr. Memon says.
Navsari district in South Gujarat, created 20 years ago when Shankarsinh Vaghela was the Chief Minister, is known for its horticulture, diamonds and non-resident Indians. The BJP won three of the four Assembly seats in the district in the 2012 Assembly elections.
The Congress is hoping to change this by cashing in on a perceived anti-incumbency factor. A group of women at the local panchayat office of Chhapara village adjoining Navsari town say the single biggest issue for them is price rise, or monghvari in Gujarati.
“The BJP had promised to bring down the prices, but instead these have gone up. Everything has become so expensive,” says Manjulaben Patel, wife of a well-off farmer whose son and daughter are working abroad.
She says despite repeated complaints to the local sarpanch (also a woman) about waterlogging near their fields and home, nothing has been done. “Every election, they say it will be done and then conveniently forget. This time, we want to tell them we won’t be fooled,” says Ms. Patel, who belongs to the Koli Patel community, an Other Backward Classes group.
Caste factors
She acknowledges that their voting preference would also be determined by caste considerations. “The Congress candidate is from our caste and we will prefer her to others,” she says.
Chhapara village, with over 6,000 voters, is mostly made up of Koli Patels and Patidars. The Patidar anger against the BJP is apparent. “We can be sure of 100% votes, but 90% Patidars will come against the BJP,” says a local builder in Navsari who did not want to come on record.
But the mood changes barely 20 km away. Dandi, once famous for Mahatma Gandhi's salt march, is now a BJP stronghold.
“The Congress isn’t as organised as the BJP. They are mainly harping on the negatives of the BJP, but don’t have any positive to offer,” says Dhirubai Patel, an octogenarian Gandhian who runs a secondary school in Dandi.
“But even if the BJP wins these elections, the party doesn’t have an universally acceptable leader and will find it tough to run the government,” Mr. Patel says.
