Koli Patels form about 23% of the population, but they are not as rich or powerful as Leuvas. However, being the largest segment of voters they have lately acquired influence. Purshottam Solanki, minister in Modi’s Cabinet, is leading the Kolis in Saurashtra. The lack of effort put in by him to help get justice to a Koli Parel woman, who was raped and murdered in Datar near Junagarh, has not gone down well with the community. They accuse him of making compromise to remain in power.
Patels may have benefited from the BJP government, but there are people who have remained in margin due to speedy development.
V K Humble is the Congress candidate from Gandhidham. He sayd, "How does it matter to my voters if Modi is a Hindutva hero? Small farmers have lost heavily in Kutch because they gave away their land at Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh per acre. Now, same land is developed by Adani group and is in market for sale. It is fetching Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh. Is it fair?"
Humble is unusually confident about his chances of victory. He says, "Modi government has not even given one acre land to poor people while the chief minister has gifted more than 1,000 acre land at throwaway price in our area."
He adds, "If Modi takes up the challenge and does not raise the Hindutva issue to mislead people, not only will he lose the election but will also be forced to leave politics."
Just two days before the first phase of election, Modi's charisma is at work in urban Gujarat while in villages and small towns the Congress is taking away a lot of shine from the Modi image and giving him a tough fight, without any help from the Gandhi family or secular forces.
Image: V K Humble, Congress candidate from Gandhidham, is confident of winning the battle against his BJP rival.
Also read: 'Modi has raised Gujarati parochialism'
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