Modi outfoxes the Patels - Hardik and Naresh

While Hardik is heading for the BJP though he denies it and Naresh is Congress-bound but does not commit, Modi and Shah have carpet-bombed Saurashtra

The young may know the rules, but the experienced know the exceptions. More so, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who changes the rules to suit his governance and the exceptions to guide his politics. So you have Hardik Patel in a queue and Naresh Patel on cue.

Hardik Patel is the Gujarat quota stir rebel - now without a cause - who awaits a new home. Naresh Patel is the philanthropist whose work without a pause has earned him encomiums and now needs a nest. Both stand poised at the poll-side crossroads awaiting the green light. Hardik quit the Congress and is headed for the BJP though he denies it. Naresh is Congress-bound but does not commit. And while the two prevaricated, Prime Minister Modi moved Saturday last to swipe them to size. The message was clear: Lilliputians have their limitations, and it is Gulliver who rules the political globe.

Modi has few peers in strategising perception management, with confidante CR Patil, his state party chief, to deliver the details. He allows rivals to ride' rockstars' and pulls the plug on them past the halfway mark, making them dust unto dust descend. A simple example - KD Parvadiya, a multi-speciality hospital built by the Patel Sewa Samaj at Atkot in Rajkot district of Saurashtra region, would have been happy if they could manage the chief minister to inaugurate the facility. Alerted to the strategic opportunity of a region-domination exercise which could be converted into a show of Patidar strength for the BJP, they got the prime minister instead. The same day, a string of engagements for Home Minister Amit Shah at the other end in Dwarka made the carpet 'bombing' of Saurashtra complete. The state goes to the polls later this year.

Also read: Not joining BJP on May 30, says Hardik Patel

The Congress had made impressive gains in Saurashtra in the 2017 elections bagging 28 of the total 48 seats, up 13 seats from 2012, with the BJP reduced to 19, down 11. It rejoiced for denting the Patidar vote-bank of the BJP and rewarded Hardik, the Patel quota crusader, with a working vice-presidentship of the party in Gujarat. Hardik put in his papers recently in a bid to vend his way to the BJP, mouthed all the proper Sangh-endearing sermons but is still stuck in limbo.

It was widely speculated that Naresh Patel, who heads the Khodaldham Trust, a prestigious institution of the Leuva Patidar sect, may join the Congress and may even be projected as a possible chief ministerial candidate. With Prashant Kishor strongly pitching for Naresh at one stage, a disillusioned Hardik began looking around for greener pastures, but Naresh has remained commitment-phobic. Modi walked into the breach and, for the moment, has made both redundant with his show of strength." Thirteen years in Gujarat and eight years at the Centre, I have delivered blemishless. I promise you more and better," he held aloft at the Atkot rally.

The BJP pulled out all stops, and 1200 road transport corporation buses besides 350 school buses were mobilised to bring people to the event from all over Saurashtra; 50,000 women marked presence dressed in saffron sarees distributed for free, says a published report. The invitation for the event carried the name of the Khodhaldham Trust, among others though it was made known that Naresh Patel may not be attending. The event organiser, Dr Bharat Bodhra, a Patel himself, is known to be close to state BJP chief CR Patil. Dilip Sanghani, IFFCO chairman who also belongs to the same community, has already gone on record to state that the community does not vote at the behest of any one leader, be it Naresh Patel or anyone else.

Also read: Gujarat's young Turks: Promise, potential and the plunge

The PM addressed rally was not merely a Patidar show for BJP strength. It was also meant to put down the disquieting voices within the party firmly. The replacement of Vijay Rupani and his entire cabinet last September had led to a lot of heartburn, particularly among the Congress defectors who had been accommodated in the cabinet and left out in the cold thereafter. The show was meant to rub home the CR Patil line that people vote Modi, not you.

The Congress's ardour for Naresh Patel was also based on the need for safeguarding the 2017 gains after the realisation dawned on the party that Hardik Patel was playing footsie with the BJP. If the Congress high command has directed its state unit not to push Naresh Patel matters, the BJP, too, is playing it cool with Hardik Patel.

According to sources within the BJP, the strategy was to wean away Hardik from the Congress to deny the opposition whatever this advantage meant rather than benefit the BJP. Sentiments run high within the BJP on his inclusion as a key section holds him responsible for his role in the ouster of the first women chief minister of Gujarat, also a Patidar, Anandiben Patel. Modi's go-ahead may quieten things for the moment, but this section believes that Hardik reneged on the understanding that had been arrived at with the then chief minister on a 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) and played into the hands of her detractors within.

Already the knives are out for him. A former Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader, Bhavesh Sonani, has, in a published report, charged Hardik with making money by selling Congress tickets during the 2017 state Assembly elections. He also claimed that it was at his instance that a shoe had been hurled at union minister Mansukh Mandaviya at a meeting. Whatever may be the veracity of these claims, there is more in store for him as he gets caught in the crossfire of the ruling party's internal strife.

These sources confirm that a key officer was used to make the Patidar quota rebel see the reality of his present situation with two dozen or more FIRs against him, including those for sedition, with each having the capacity to end his political career if the government chose to put it's foot down in right earnest. It was thereafter that he agreed to move out and head toward the ruling party. A reciprocal softening of the BJP government's stand is noticeable in that it has withdrawn one of the many cases but is in no hurry to speed up the process. In fact, it may slow it down to keep him on a leash. For now, he awaits his induction into the ruling party-one of the many who went in and got lost, from Menaka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi at one end of the spectrum to one time Gujarat deputy chief minister Narhari Amin and minister Kunvarji Bavaliya at the other.

(R K Misra is a senior journalist based in Ahmedabad)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH