Has the Patidar vote-bank slipped out of Hardik Patel's hands?

A tour through Patidar dominated the landscape of Saurashtra, rural as well as urban, suggests that Hardik Patel seems to have lost the confidence of the community.

Interestingly, the narrative on the ground seems to be that Patidars, especially the older generation, always saw Hardik as a new face of the Patels within the BJP and not outside and that the support he enjoyed was for the limited goal of wringing out concessions from the government. When it comes to the larger politics of the state with Congress as the option to BJP, Hardik's politics has gone haywire.

"People throng to his rallies and sabhas because we feel that he is a Patel kid who is fighting for our future. We thought we have found a new face or leader who will capture the BJP for us. But now that he is hobnobbing with the Congress, which is not done. Our political affiliation is clear," said Nareshbhai Patel from Patidar dominated Virpur village on the border of Rajkot and Junagadh districts.

Dillidallying, Hardik has yet not been able to finalise his alliance with Congress. "This shows that he is rudderless. A problem is that he is not the age to contest elections and perhaps doesn't know what to do with the following he had. Today he is here, and tomorrow he is there. So, how can we trust him?" said Paresh H Patel of Dhoraji, another Patidar stronghold.

Moreover, the younger generation sees Hardik's dilly-dallying in choosing sides as either his rudderlessness or as a sign of being in cahoots with Congress since the beginning of the Patidar unrest for "personal gains". People of this community feel that he is trying to trade his influence with the community to mint money and a career for himself rather than a selfless effort for them. "He has exposed himself by allying with Congress. He is right to ask for our demands but allying with Congress is not done. He is making money for himself. He is trading us and the future of our children to make his own," Pareshbhai added.

Even the Patidar community of Visavadar, the constituency from where Keshubhai Patel led his war against Narendra Modi and one of the two seats that once powerful Patidar leader managed to win after breaking away from BJP, is not rallied around Hardik as one would have expected.

"It is all about money. He will make loads of money in this election from the Congress and then no one will hear of him. He is not a politician. We support him for fighting for our demands, but if he were to contest we would not even vote for him. Who is he to dictate our vote? Is he a bigger leader than Keshubhai? See what happened to Keshubhai," Vipulbhai Patel of Visavadar told DNA.

The caste divide between Kadva and Leuva Patels too seems to be playing in the Hardik conundrum. While Hardik is a Kadva Patel, Leuva Patels are more in number in the Saurashtra region and they are miffed at Hardik for having caused the downfall of former CM Anandiben Patel who had to step down due to the Patidar unrest. Anandiben happens to be a Leuva Patel. "I don't know how many Kadva Patels are in his support but Leuva community will never forget that it was due to him that Anandiben, first woman CM of Gujarat and a pride of our community was sabotaged by him and his intransigent attitude," said Vijay Manubhai from Upleta. Meanwhile, the attitude of the trading community and that of manufacturers, who also happen mainly to be Patels given the socio-economic structure of the state, too can be gagged by the above observations.

While Patel businessmen are openly criticising Modi, demonetisation and GST, they either feel there is no other option or they are hopeful that Modi will make policy adjustments to alleviate their troubles.

"The small-scale manufacturing units have been hit by demo and we still don't know how to file GST. It is frustrating as there have been job cuts for we had to let many employees go due to a slump in business. But, we think Modi will make up for it and make amendments. These moves were good, but the implementation needs to be finetuned," said Paras Kasundra Patil, who makes hydraulic machines for farm sector in his unit based in the Atlas industrial estate in Rajkot.

"Congress must not come as it will ruin the country. BJP must come but with depleted seats so that they get a lesson too," he added. On the other hand, Veenubhai Patel, who runs a boring unit in the Samrat Industrial Complex on the outskirts of Rajkot, feels that while demo hurt for a short period, GST has helped his business. "Those who were manufacturing and trading off the books and illegally have been hurt. That has been good for my business as a genuine businessman."