Author: C L Manoj
Publication: The Sunday Statesman
Date: August 4, 2002
The Congress is likely to play the
caste card in Gujarat to match Mr Narendra Modi's Hindu card.
The party is trying to revive the
old KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) alliance. Former Congress
chief minister Mr Madhavsinh Solanki put together this combination in the
1980s.
Congress strategists hope for a
'working relationship' between Mr Solanki and Mr Shankersinh Vaghela, PCC
chief Mr Vaghela is a Kshatriya leader. Congress leaders say Mr Vaghela
successfully wooed the caste for the BJP when he was in that party. The
party is trying to retrieve its base among Dalits and tribals, who together
constitute a significant part of the electorate. If these moves work, the
BJP may be "left with only Patels and a section of the forward castes,"
a Congress leader said.
'When Assembly polls were held in
UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi after the Babari Masjid demolition,
the BJP's Mandir card could not defeat the caste card of its rivals. Gujarat
will be a similar test.
Party leaders hope "communal polarisation"
in the state will not have much impact outside Ahmedabad, Baroda, and Panchamal,
the epicentre of the riots. They plan to concentrate on Saurashtra and
south Gujarat belts, where they think riots "made little impact" and where
"the main issue now is the Modi government's failure to provide developmental
infrastructure'.
The party is encouraged by Mr Keshubhai
Patel's 'refusal" to patch up with Mr Modi despite the BJP central leadership's
best efforts.
Alliance talks between Mr Sharad
Pawar and Mr Ahmed Patel, the behind-the-scene Gujarat coordinator, seem
to be failing.
