Reshma Patel was once a prominent face of the Patidar reservation agitationPatidar quota-leader-turned-politician Reshma Patel had a forgettable debut in electoral politics after she came seventh in the Porbandar parliamentary constituency and third in the bypoll to the Manavadar Assembly constituency in Junagadh district.
Once a prominent woman face in the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) – the group headed by Hardik Patel that led the agitation for OBC quota for the Patidars – Reshma joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections even as Hardik decided to campaign against the ruling party. But on March 15 this year, just a few days after the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections was announced, the 33-year-old leader quit the BJP, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party of using party workers to “market their hollow promises”.
She filed her nomination papers for Porbandar Lok Sabha seat as an Independent and later she joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which offered her ticket to contest the Manavadar Assembly bypoll warranted by resignation of Congress MLA Jawahar Chavda who had defected to the BJP.
“After I got NCP ticket to fight the Assembly bypoll, I focused more on Manavadar Assembly constituency, and therefore was not able to pay much attention to the Porbandar parliamentary constituency,” she says on her poor performance.
During campaigning she had tried to woo the majority group of electorate, the Patidars. She had even claimed she was attacked by “BJP supporters” while campaigning in Manavadar Assembly constituency where she was pitted against Chavda of the BJP and Arvind Ladani of Congress in a three-way contest. In Porbandar Lok Sabha seat, which also comprises Manavadar Assembly segment, she was in a three-way race with Ramesh Dhaduk of the BJP and Lalit Vasoya of the Congress.
Despite her background in the community agitation, Reshma stood seventh among 17 candidates in Porbandar Lok Sabha seat. She got only 3,716 votes or 0.39% of votes. In fact, she came behind the BSP candidate, two other Independents and “none-of-the-above (NOTA).
Her performance in the Manavadar bypoll, conducted simultaneously with the Lok Sabha election, was equally abysmal. While she did come in third after Chavda and Ladani, the number of total votes she polled as the NCP nominee was only 1,709 or 1.13%.
“Since I do not belong to any affluent family or a very big political party, I had financial limitations and could not hold big election meetings. But I covered around 142 villages in Manavadar. People did turn up for my meetings and took selfies with me. But the number of votes I polled suggest that I failed to convert the support into votes,” says Reshma, who banked on the majority Patidar votes.
“However, I have doubts about the EVMs. I am not ready to believe that the BJP won all seats with so big margins nationally. This does not seem like janadesh (people’s mandate) but EVM adesh (an order by EVMs),” she adds.
Raju Dhruv, BJP spokesperson for Saurashtra-Kutch region said Reshma and other leaders were defeated because people had faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and the organisational skills of Amit Shah. “Reshma Patel tried her luck. However, people accepted the BJP and rejected her and all others,” he said.
The NCP has appointed Reshma the spokesperson for Gujarat and vice-president of Gujarat state unit of the party.
“While it not the best of debuts for me, the party leadership has continued their faith in me. I plan to build an organisation before I fight the 2022 election from Manavadar,” Reshma said.
Reshma had shot to the limelight after she went on an indefinite hunger strike in Ahmedabad demanding the release of Hardik from jail after he was apprehended over riots during the Patidar stir. She reportedly wanted contest Assembly election from Keshod seat in Junagadh district on a Congress ticket. However, when Congress ignored her wish, she quit PAAS.
However, she publicly sought Congress support to contest the Porbandar parliamentary election and Manavadar Assembly bypoll “for the sake of women empowerment and to drive away BJP.” With neither Congress nor any other party responding, the 33-year-old filed her nomination papers for Porbandar as an Independent. Days later she joined the NCP, which offered her the Manavadar ticket.
Dhaduk won the seat with 5,63,881 votes while Vasoya, also a former senior PAAS functionary who joined Congress during the 2017 Assembly election and who is a now sitting Congress MLA from Dhoraji, finished second with 3,34,058 votes. In Porbandar, Chavda, who retained the seat as a BJP candidate, secured 78,491 votes and Ladani got 68,732 votes or 45.28 per cent. Reshma barely managed to beat the NOTA tally of 1,375.
Dharmik Malaviya, PAAS convener for Surat, said it may not be possible for every PAAS leader to build a career in electoral politics. “When she was with PAAS, she was one of prominent leaders of the agitation. She commanded a lot of respect. But as soon as she quit PAAS to join the BJP and began making statements against Hardik and others, her popularity waned,” he said. “Electoral politics is different from a movement like the reservation agitation. There is no guarantee that people who support you in the agitation would support you in an election also.”
