BJP modifies Congress’‘social re-engineering’

With the denial of a Lok Sabha ticket to its seven-time Member of Parliament, Harin Pathak, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have nearly completed the ‘de-Brahminisation’ of Gujarat politics commenced by the four-time Congress Chief Minister, Madhavsinh Solanki, in the 1980s.

Although actor Paresh Rawal, who replaced Pathak as the BJP candidate in the Ahmedabad (East) constituency is a Brahmin, many see him as an ‘outsider’ based in Mumbai.

In this respect, Gujarat has truly been the ‘Hindutva laboratory’ for both the Congress and BJP. Social re-engineering paid rich dividends first to the Congress — the Madhavsinh Solanki regime won 149 out of the 182 Assembly seats in 1985 — and after 1995, BJP’s maximum tally was 127 in 1998. With this pre- and post-Mandalisation moves, the lower castes emerged in large numbers to share political power, while the erstwhile influence of the ‘upper castes’ declined correspondingly. So, it is not only a generational power-shift, but also societal in a State that has seen the parallel emergence of a two-party political system in the last two decades.

Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, hails from the Ghanchi caste of oilseed crushers, a minuscule backward caste. His former mentor and now bête noire, Shankarsinh Vaghela, too, belongs to a backward caste.

Within the BJP, they both dominated the goings on since 1995.

Since the 1990s, other upper castes such as the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas have also declined in political importance.

Last week, the BJP denied a ticket to its last Kshatriya MP, Rajendrasinh Rana, in Bhavnagar, where it has fielded a BJP woman MLA from the dominant Koli caste. In particular, both the Congress and BJP have slowly diminished the hold of Brahmins in Gujarat politics.

Statistics available show that the number of elected Brahmin MLAs was 12 (1990-95); 13 (1995-97); 14 (1998-2002); and 12 (2002-07).

The BJP’s share of Brahmin MLAs has been 7, 10, 12 and 10, respectively.

However, this number drastically declined subsequently, with only six MLAs (BJP) being elected in 2007-12 and five (BJP) in the 2012-17 period.