As Gujarat BJP is roiled by dissent, and a minister faces ‘Kshatriya ire’, party taken by surprise

The withdrawal of the candidature of two nominated leaders, anonymous posters, and a Union Minister facing backlash from the Kshatriya community over remarks. A series of episodes in Gujarat over the past week has put a question mark on the state BJP unit that is known for its organisational discipline.

This comes at a time when the BJP is widely expected to repeat its performance in a state where it won all 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2019 and followed it up with a record-breaking victory in the December 2022 Assembly polls (bagging 156 of 182 seats).

Vadodara’s two-term MP Ranjanben Bhatt who was given a ticket for the third time for the same seat opted out of the race on March 23, days after posters opposing her candidature over allegations of corruption surfaced. She has now been replaced by Hemang Joshi, the vice chairman of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation school board.

The same day, Bhikhaji Thakor who was set to fight his first big election from Sabarkantha backed out after having launched his campaign. His replacement is government schoolteacher Shobhana Baraiya, who is the wife of former Congress MLA Mahendra Baraiya who joined the BJP a year ago.

Bhatt and Thakor’s names had been finalised by the parliamentary board, the BJP’s highest decision-making body, which has Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, national president J P Nadda and other top leaders in it.

In Bhatt’s case, four people, including two Congress workers, were arrested for putting up the posters. Bhatt was the deputy mayor of Vadodara when she was “handpicked” for the 2014 by-election to the seat by then chief minister Anandi Patel after PM Modi vacated it to retain Varanasi, said party sources.

A day after Bhatt’s name