Mansa (Gandhinagar): If there may be one factor most political observers can agree on, it’s that Union residence minister Amit Shah is a high quality election strategist. Because the Bharatiya Janata celebration (BJP) has expanded its footprint, state by state, election after election, a big share of the credit score has gone not simply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recognition but in addition to Shah’s generalship.
However the methods of the BJP’s so-called “election machine” appear to have repeatedly failed in his personal hometown of Mansa, positioned in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district, the place he spent 16 years of his adolescence and the place prolonged relations nonetheless reside.
Since 2012, the BJP has been dropping the Mansa meeting seat, which is a part of the Mahesana parliamentary constituency, to the Congress. What makes the celebration’s two meeting election losses right here much more outstanding is that Mansa was historically a BJP stronghold.
Now, with Shah working behind the scenes to make sure a seventh consecutive win for the BJP in Gujarat, the celebration is hoping {that a} new candidate and a contemporary strategy may lastly break the Mansa jinx when it goes to vote on 5 December.
Shah, too, has been extra seen in his hometown this yr. Whereas he was hardly the prodigal son, and has been a frequent customer to Mansa, he has reduce many a ribbon right here this election yr. When ThePrint visited the city Monday, townspeople appeared to extol his contributions at each flip, particularly initiatives that had been inaugurated this yr.
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Common Navratri visits, ‘carried out loads’
A slim lane passing by way of Outdated Shak Market on Mansa’s Bus Station Street results in the reconstructed Bahuchar Mataji Mandir, Amit Shah’s household’s deity. Bang reverse the temple on the slim street is Shah’s ancestral residence.
The home, with an enormous, previous, intricately designed wood door, is underneath renovation. Neighbours stated that nobody resides there at present.
“He (Amit Shah) comes right here yearly throughout Navratri to supply prayers on the Bahuchar Mata Temple. He acquired the previous temple reconstructed,” stated Harish P. Jani, 46, who lives two homes away from Shah’s ancestral residence.
An information operator in a non-public agency, Jani’s household has lived within the locality for 3 generations now. However he has not been capable of meet Shah throughout the BJP chief’s visits to the temple. “There’s a safety protocol. It’s not potential,” stated Jani, who reconstructed his home underneath the PM Awas Yojana.
Lower than a kilometre from Shah’s ancestral house is the Mahatma Gandhi Pustakalay, a library that has been a landmark right here for many years.
Shah was purportedly a daily customer throughout his schooldays, however the constructing had develop into decrepit over time. That’s, till it was refurbished and unveiled by Shah in July.
In his speech on the occasion, he bolstered his Mansa roots. “That is my village. My ancestors got here right here within the yr 1361. I’ve studied within the library… at present after inaugurating the brand new constructing of the identical library, I really feel completely happy,” he stated.
“Amit Shah sir acquired the previous library and a clocktower subsequent to it renovated. This library has proved to be a blessing in disguise for the scholars residing in and round Mansa village,” stated resident Raol Kirpal Singh, 25.
Singh, who has accomplished his BCom and is making ready for Gujarat authorities service exams, stated the revamped library has a whole lot of books, on-line hyperlinks to over two dozen libraries around the globe, a pc library, Wi-Fi, and a bunch of different services.
“Ladies additionally come right here and put together for aggressive exams. There may be CCTV throughout to make sure security,” Singh stated.
Throughout his July go to to Mansa, Shah additionally inaugurated the Sardar Patel Sanskrutik Bhawan, a cultural centre on Makakhad Street, a kilometre away from the library, in addition to a mid-day meal kitchen run by the NGO Akshaya Patra.
Throughout his speech, Shah promised the individuals of Mansa that the civil hospital right here would quickly be geared up with “high-tech services” and that the city would see many different trendy facilities by 2024.
“He has carried out quite a lot of growth work for Mansa village since he turned a minister in Modi ji’s authorities,” stated Babubhai Patel, who runs a pharmacy in Outdated Shak Market.
Two losses, now a ‘contemporary face’
Native BJP leaders ThePrint spoke to stated they had been nonetheless considerably baffled by the celebration’s defeats in Mansa, because it has historically been a BJP bastion. “The BJP received consecutively from the seat from 1995 until 2007,” an area BJP chief stated.
The celebration’s fortunes right here turned in 2012, when native BJP heavyweight D.D. Patel misplaced by 8,028 votes to Amitbhai Harisingbhai Chaudhary of the Congress.
Forward of the elections in 2017, Chaudhary defected to the BJP and was given the celebration’s ticket to contest from Mansa. Nonetheless, he misplaced to the Congress candidate, Sureshkumar Chaturdas Patel, by a wafer-thin margin of 524 votes.
In line with locals, the outcomes in each these elections had been affected partially by individuals voting alongside neighborhood strains.
“The Thakor neighborhood is in sizable numbers in Mansa and so they have been going with Congress because the final two elections,” stated Vishal Patel, a resident of Mansa village.
Of the two.28 lakh voters in Mansa meeting constituency, Patidars are estimated to account for round 46,000 votes, Thakors 42,000, OBCs (Different Backward Courses) 34,000 Rajputs 29,000, Chaudharys 22,000, and Scheduled Castes 17,000. The remaining belong to minority communities, the Scheduled Tribes, and different castes.
The BJP chief quoted earlier stated one more reason for the 2017 defeat was the fallout of the Patidar agitation for reservation in authorities jobs. This stir, which started in 2015, is believed to be a significant purpose why the BJP’s tally in Gujarat dropped to a two-decade low of 99 within the 182-member legislative meeting in 2017.
This time, too, Mansa guarantees to be a neck-and-neck battle between the BJP and the Congress, which have each nominated candidates tactically on neighborhood strains.
Whereas the BJP has fielded a Patidar, J.S. Patel, who’s within the development enterprise, the Congress has chosen ex-MLA Babuji Thakor, who’s from the Thakor neighborhood and is within the transport enterprise.
Patel is a first-time candidate, in line with the celebration’s technique of prioritising new faces in lots of seats.
“The celebration determined that not all people who defected from Congress will likely be given a ticket. The ticket was given after an intensive evaluation of all of the candidates,” stated one other Mansa BJP chief, who didn’t need to be named.
The BJP candidate, J.S. Patel, advised ThePrint that this time round he’s assured that the celebration will sail by way of simply.
“A whole lot of growth work has occurred within the constituency in recent times, due to Amit Shahji,” he stated.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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