As BJP digs heels in, Kshatriyas do too, plan to widen protest across Gujarat

Three years before he became the Prime Minister and even before the BJP picked him as a candidate for the post, in 2011, the Ranjitvilas Palace of the erstwhile Wankaner royals had hosted a felicitation for Narendra Modi where he was hailed as the ‘PM-in-Waiting’. Breaking an almost 15-year hibernation where not many were in politics, around 18 royal scions came out in support of the then chief minister.

It marked a turning point in the political positioning of the royal families of Gujarat, which had traditionally aligned with the Congress and held ministerial portfolios in its governments at the state and Centre. Plus, the BJP had the backing of the Patidars, numerically much more than the Rajputs and with a history of tension with the Kshatriyas (of which Rajputs are a part) over ownership of land and social hierarchy.

Now, 10 years into Modi’s prime ministership, the Rajputs find themselves relegated to the outer orbits of power – a position they are not used to. While protests by the Kshatriya community have been going on against him for a month, the BJP has refused to change Parshottam Rupala, a Kadva Patidar, as its candidate from Rajkot.

The Kshatriyas are demanding his removal over a remark suggesting that the community had yielded before the British, cooperating with them and giving their daughters in marriage.

On April 19, representatives of over 120 Kshatriya organisations of Gujarat held a meeting in Ahmedabad to decide their strategy against the BJP, where they announced protests across the state. On Sunday, a group of Kshatriyas turned up at the opening of the BJP’s election office in Vadali in Sabarkantha to protest.

Thelargest Kshatriya congregation so far was held on April 14 in Ratanpar, Rajkot, where a