Decode Politics: Why BJP fears it will hurt as Kshatriyas draw swords over party leader’s remarks in Gujarat

On March 5, when he arrived in Gujarat’s Rajkot as the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for the constituency, Union minister for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying Parshottam Rupala was welcomed by his supporters and BJP workers, including the incumbent party MP Mohan Kundariya, with fanfare.

Barely two weeks into his campaign, Rupala, 69, is finding himself in the eye of a storm which the BJP is finding difficult to quell. And the protests have erupted against him from an unlikely quarter – Kshatriyas or Rajputs, a community which has always rallied behind the party in power in the state.

The controversy

On March 23, a video went viral on social media showing Rupala speaking at a Dalit event in Rajkot on March 22, where he is purportedly heard saying: “Other also ruled us. So did the British and…they spared nothing to persecute (us). Even the kings bowed down. They (kings) broke bread with them (British) and married their daughters to them. But our Rukhi (Dalit) community neither changed their religion nor established such ties though they were persecuted the most.”

Various Kshatriya organisations, especially Kshatriya Karni Sena headed by Raj Shekhawat, reacted angrily, saying Rupala’s statement that Kshatriya rulers married their daughters with the British was wrong, with some protest groups also burning effigies of Rupala in various parts of the state. Rupala, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, belongs to the upper-caste Kadva Patidar community.

Leading the protests

Among the prominent Kshatriya faces of protests against Rupala are P T Jadeja, the Akhil Gujarat Rajput Yuva Sangh international president, Padminiba Vala, the president of Mahila Karni Sena, Gujarat, Raj Shekhawat, the Kshatriya Karni Sena chief, and J P