Once upon a time in Gujarat… Behind Rupala’s woes, a Kshatriya longing for past

Parshottam Rupala, his aides say, has never had it easy – that is, till he joined politics. The second of six children of a farmer, he would walk 12 km to school; when he became principal at a government school, it was only to lose his job to an unlucky court ruling.

However, since a childhood friend and BJP leader Dilip Sanghani steered him into politics, Rupala has hardly looked back – heading the BJP’s Amreli district unit, then its Gujarat unit, and holding a ministerial post at the Centre since 2016. There was one political setback, in the 2002 elections, but the backing of Narendra Modi and others in the state leadership saw him through, say party insiders.

Rupala is facing his first electoral contest 22 years after that defeat – and his biggest challenge yet. At the age of 69, seeking to make his Lok Sabha debut, Rupala has run into protests of the kind the mighty BJP is not used to in Gujarat, with the Kshatriyas seeking the cancellation of his candidature over remarks made by him about the community.

A Kadva Patidar leader, Rupala suggested that the Kshatriyas had bowed meekly before the British. Since then, he has apologised several times, as has Gujarat BJP chief C R Paatil. However, the community refuses to be assuaged, and is sticking to its demand that the BJP field someone else from the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat, which has long been a party bastion.

While the controversy on the surface is that of “Kshatriya asmita (honour)”, the undercurrent is that of the Patidars gradually replacing them as the dominant group within the BJP.

Ramjubha Jadeja, the convener of a group of Kshatriya organisations that is driving the agitation, says: “Currently, our only demand is that the BJP cancel the ticket to Rupala. If the BJP