It was in this South Gujarat town that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel first came to the political limelight through a farmers’ agitation against the British in the 1920s.
Almost a century later, Narendra Modi has the support of many Non-Resident Indians of Bardoli origin to support his candidature for the Prime Minister’s post.
Bardoli, like Kheda, Anand and Kutch districts, is from where a large number people had migrated mainly to the West in the last couple of decades.
“Our forefathers once supported Sardar Patel who became the Deputy Prime Minister in the 1940s. Now, we want to make Modi the PM. It is our payback time now,” said one of them.
Modi’s several tele-conferences with the NRIs over various issues in the last two years have encouraged them to come to India to canvass support for the BJP’s PM candidate.
Jagadish Vyas, who retired from Pfizer and is now an investor, said he has been made a “warden for Gujarat” by the US Government. He has bases in Ahmedabad and Florida. “We are contributing to Modi’s campaign on an individual basis,” said Vyas, who owns a motel in the US.
Many of them have shelled out the finances for the travel, stay and campaign expenditure; however, none of them would comment on Modi’s alleged involved in the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots, nor the denial of a US visa to him since 2005.
Asked about Modi’s poll campaign, Vyas said nearly 1,000 NRIs have fanned out across Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh; 80 per cent of them are non-Gujaratis. These NRIs hope that the Gujarat strongman would provide them voting rights in India also.
“We will encourage the people to vote for Modi.” Another NRI, Bharat Barai from Chicago, revealed that several of his colleagues were supporters of the Democratic Party in the US, and had actively supported Barack Obama in 2012 when he contested to retain his Presidency. Now, these NRIs have gathered in India under the banner of ‘Global Indians for India’s Development.’
“Modi has influenced us to do our bit. We have drawn inspiration from his views on issues such as development, price rise, corruption and terrorism, and above all, his slogan of ‘India First’ to make the nation a super power.”