‘What happened in Surat is very bad… But what can we do about it when Congress is in shambles?’: Vijay Rupani

ABRUPTLY removed as chief minister a year ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections of 2022, the Rajkot-based Vijay Rupani is now among the leaders the BJP has turned to for help for its embattled Rajkot candidate Parshottam Rupala, who is facing protests from the Rajputs following his contentious remarks against the community. Rupani, the BJP’s Punjab in-charge, speaks to The Indian Express about growing caste consciousness, the troubles facing the Congress, and what the BJP, given its dominance, needs to be careful about. Excerpts:

Avar navar hun kahu chhu ke overconfidence ek challenge moto rehse. Etla maate karyakartao overconfidence ma na rahe. Ane thodu ghanu jaati vaad. E challenge chhe. Jaativaad ne karane pan kyanyey mato ma aaghu paachhu na thaay (I have been saying often that overconfidence is one big challenge. Karyakartas should not become overconfident; And to an extent, casteism,that will be a big challenge. Because of casteism, we hope some votes don’t go this way or that… The issue of casteism has worsened over the past two decades.

Casteism is gaining ground and this cannot be ignored in politics… So, we keep doing some balancing work and social engineering. That said, it is a cause of worry for all political parties and the country as a whole, and the only solution to lift people out of it is to promote the spirit of nationalism.

That is for Opposition leaders to worry about and to find ways to survive… Take the Congress. It doesn’t have any leader. The party is in the grip of nepotism. Its policy keeps lurching from one side to the other… Eventually, it is votes which count and they have to win votes in a manner that people trust them and by exploiting our shortcomings. But it is their responsibility, not