For Jagruti Pandya and Shweta Bhatt the Gujarat poll battle is a personal one

Sometimes elections are fought for more than pride and the battle is a lot more personal. Ask Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, and Jagruti Pandya former state home minister Haren Pandya’s widow, for whom the electoral battles are a lot closer to home.

Bhatt is taking on Chief Minister Narendra  Modi in his own constituency, Maninagar while Pandya is contesting on a Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) ticket.

Bhatt might have hit the campaign trail as a candidate for the Congress but her real fight is to seek justice for her husband, who has been Modi’s adversary in the 2002 Godhra riots case.

“My husband, family, daughter and everybody have been harassed. If they are troubled, why should I as a housewife not come out and raise my voice?” Bhatt said.

An interesting parallel to Bhatt’s struggle is Pandya’s.

Pandya is also seeking justice for her husband - Haren Pandya, a former BJP leader. Haren had taken on Narendra Modi before he was killed and Pandya said her fight is to hit back at Modi for sidelining her husband after 2002.

“This issue is now in the people’s court. Truth will prevail. It appears as if it is taking time, but the truth will come out,” Pandya, who is contesting from Ellisbridge constituency, said.

And while neither of the women is expected to come out victorious, what they have managed to do is embarass the Chief Minister’s coterie with their highly personalised comments about him and his style of functioning.