Obviously
the first one will be on who will be the next chief minister of Gujarat after
Anandiben Patel, the outgoing CM, shocked everyone by announcing her wish to
retire in a Facebook post. After her Facebook post that took the political and
media circles by storm, she soon went to meet the Governor of the state to
apprise him of the development.
Obviously we
were expecting it - especially after the Patel reservation agitation that
affected many parts of the state and was seen as a clear case of mishandling by
Anandiben Patel. The agitation that got violent is now threatening the unbridled
run of the BJP in the state after many Dalit atrocity incidents that has
galvanized the Dalit community against the BJP.
Dalit or the
SC voters may be just 8 percent in Gujarat and the minority voters may be just
12 percent, but their combine is a formidable foe in Uttar Pradesh where these
two communities together form 38.5 percent of the population.
To send a
message that BJP itself was worried on rising anti-Dalit incidents, especially
to check the chances and social engineering of Mayawati's Dalit-Muslim combine
in Uttar Pradesh, where assembly polls are slated to be held early next year,
before Gujarat goes to the polls somewhere in the last month of the year, the
party had to take some tough decision.
And Anandiben
Patel was the natural target here. She proved a weak CM who could not take
along or tame the different communities of the state. To add to it, her family
was entangled in corruption allegations.
And
sacrificing Anandiben would serve another purpose - it would also help to
appease the OBC voters in Uttar Pradesh. OBCs form the largest block of the
population of the state - around 45 percent - and the BJP is targeting this
vote bank. It has replaced its upper caste state president with an OBC face and
will certainly try to encash the OBC credentials of prime minister Modi as it
did in Lok Sabha polls.
To
continue..
©SantoshChaubey
