Through successive wins of the BJP in the Assembly polls, the Central Gujarat district of Kheda with its six Assembly seats and a central role in the milk cooperatives structure of Amul Dairy in Anand had remained firmly with the Congress. The recent elections to the Rajya Sabha saw the Thasra MLA and chairman of the Kheda district milk cooperatives union affiliated to Amul Dairy, Ramsinhji Parmar, switch over to the BJP. This became the starting point of the BJP’s hopes for finally breaching this Congress bastion as Mr. Parmar, a six-time Congress MLA, is expected not just to win his seat but also influence voting through the network of milk cooperatives in the other five seats.
As he winds up his speech at Saiyyat village in Thasra, Mr. Parmar goes to great lengths to explain why he jumped ship after a long stint in the Congress.
“You all know that I have worked hard to secure high prices for your milk and timely bonuses. What I have been hampered in doing is large-scale development work because I have sat in the Opposition, and I was having difficulty getting work done. This time, I decided that I would sit on the Treasury side. We can already see the results of my having switched parties, Nitinbhai Patel [Deputy Chief Minister] has sanctioned ₹80 crore worth of road-related projects for Thasra. More will happen,” Mr. Parmar says.
Speaking to The Hindu , he repeated his reasons for changing parties. Asked what he would do if the Congress came to power, he refused to contemplate the prospect. “That will not happen. We will win and win big. Amitbhai [BJP president Amit Shah] has said that no one will take out a victory celebration rally if we get fewer than 150 seats,” he said.
Thasra has a dominance of Kshatriya votes, nearly 60%, a smattering of Patidar voters and around 10% Muslim voters. “We have all category of Muslims in Thasra — Sheikhs, Syeds, Pathans and Malliks. Of these, the first three communities will vote for me,” Mr. Parmar said.
Parmar vs. Parmar
His Congress rival, ironically, is Kantibhaisinh Parmar, who switched over from the BJP and had been defeated by him in the previous election. His speech, at Pillola village, is on the theme of this being a traditional Congress bastion that does not “bow” to the vagaries of political fortune in Delhi or Gandhinagar.
To The Hindu , he expressed his dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Modi and Mr. Shah, who, he said had overlooked the fact that he had held the BJP flag up in a Congress stronghold for so many years. “These two, who run things from way above, have ignored my claims,” he said.
As the BJP candidate is seen off by the villagers, some frank talk finally breaks out. “Both have made mistakes in switching parties,” Dipashibhai Poonambhai Chavda, mentioning that Ramsinhji Parmar’s supporters had been reaching out specifically to voters to remember that he had now switched parties. “Here we know Ramsinhji and panja [Congress symbol of hand],” he said.
Poll prospects
Mafatlal Patel, a farmer and resident of Pillola, was more direct: “We will alight on the vehicle that is in running shape; Modi will be Prime Minister for two years more, what will we get by saluting the Congress?”
In this last holdout to BJP control over milk cooperative country, something is boiling over.
