The Congress on Friday hit out at the BJP, saying its “signature tune” of “jobless growth” first sung in Gujarat had resulted in a revolt of the Patidar community and farmers in general in the western State.
Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, referring to the violence at the Patidar rally that BJP president Amit Shah addressed in Surat on Thursday — where members of the community shouted slogans against the BJP — was the natural outcome of the neglect of the agricultural sector by the BJP.
Between 2002 and 2012, when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, official figures, he said, showed that as many as 5,872 farmers had committed suicide. Not just that, he continued, rural inflation in Gujarat was currently the highest in the country.
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Little wonder, Mr. Singhvi said, that the Patidars had shouted slogans such as
The “deep-seated resentment” of the Patidars — a largely agricultural community — had surfaced as they were comparing what the government had not done for them with the loan waiver given to the corporates to the tune of Rs. 1,14,000 crore, he stressed.
For the Congress that has been out of power for more than two decades in Gujarat, the revolt by the Patels does represent an opportunity.
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Earlier this month, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had convened a special meeting with the party’s Patidar leaders to draw up a road map to secure the support of members of the community ahead of next year’s Assembly elections in Gujarat.
Former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Siddharth Patel, who is being projected as the party’s Patel face in the State, will head this group of Patidar leaders. Congress sources say that Patel leaders have been given charge of two to three Patel-dominated districts with specific instructions to win the confidence of their community, traditionally anti-Congress. Simultaneously, they have been asked to enrol Patels in the party and identify potential candidates from the community for the Assembly elections.