Modi's man Paresh Rawal missing in Ahmedabad, but BJP unfazed

Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi was close to contesting his maiden Lok Sabha election from the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha constituency until he picked Vadodara instead. Ahmedabad West, where his own Assembly constituency Maninagar is located, is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates and so was not in the reckoning. Then, despite Modi not contesting from here, the party still chose to drop seven-time MP Harin Pathak from Ahmedabad East, picking Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal instead. Licking his wounds, Pathak is now campaigning for LK Advani from neighbouring Gandhinagar, preferring not to campaign for Rawal. In Ahmedabad East on Friday however, there is no sign of Rawal, despite there being only four days of campaigning to go. On Thursday he was reportedly in Mumbai, casting his vote. There are many explanations for his absence – he had a root canal procedure, one leader said; another said he was in Delhi rehearsing for the Padma awards (he receives the honour on Saturday in Delhi) and, of course, the uncharitable expression for everybody from Mumbai: “You people cannot handle Ahmedabad’s summer.” [caption id=“attachment_1498019” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  That Rawal win is a foregone conclusion: IBNlive[/caption] In the BJP, nobody is even mildly perturbed at Rawal’s absence – he will return on Sunday with only two days left to campaign. Because the BJP knows that winning Ahmedabad East will be a breeze. In 2009, Harin Pathak polled 3,18,846 votes here, the Congress’s Dipak Babaria polled 2,32,790. “A win by 50,000 or 60,000 votes is not a difficult thing for the BJP in Ahmedabad East,” says one senior local BJP man. “There are Assembly segments there where people will give Paresh Rawal a lead of 20,000 votes. Even if he does not campaign at all, he can be assured of people going out and voting for the BJP and him getting a 5,000 or 10,000 strong lead in these Assembly segments.” The hardcore BJP Assembly segments are Vatva, where in 2009 Harin Pathak led by over 20,000 votes; Nikol where he led by over 17,000 votes; Naroda where he led by over 27,000 votes and Thakkarbappa Nagar, where the lead for the BJP was over 26,000 votes. And besides, Rawal is seen as a sort of mascot for Modi – he campaigned for the Gujarat chief minister in the 2012 Assembly elections, even stated his wish to play Modi in a film. Described by many BJP leaders who met him in the course of the 2012 campaign and in the past month as straight-talking and down-to-earth, Rawal’s biggest campaign statement to date has been a simple winner: “I’m just here to ensure Modi becomes PM.” The Congress, of course, is harping on the fact that Rawal is an outsider. “He is an accomplished person but in a different field,” says Himmatsingh Patel, former mayor of Ahmedabad, four-time corporator in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, long-time Congress loyalist, son of a Congressman, and now Congress candidate against Rawal. Patel is campaigning hard, doing roadshows and speeches and door-to-door campaigns. With four days to go, he still has 40 percent of his constituency to cover, he tells an associate on the phone. “People of Ahmedabad are sensible. They will see that he is from a different field while I have dedicated my life to serving this city. I have been available for the people of the city for 365 days a year, morning and night, never meeting anybody with anger or irritation, always looking to help,” Patel says. When a thunderstorm hit Ahmedabad last weekend, there were several who sustained injuries. The BJP had nobody available to offer people help, he accuses. “Seva is a bhaavna, an emotion.” Needless to say, Rawal, who got actor Suneil Shetty to campaign for him last week before he left town, appears to be riding the Modi wave. The BJP campaign is muted – Ahmedabad East has just a fraction of the Ab Ki Baar hoardings in a single Mumbai suburb. “Of course, there is great confidence that we will win, but the fewer number of BJP posters and hoardings is something Gujarat has witnessed for the last couple of elections,” says a senior Gujarat state BJP leader. “It’s partly to fall in line carefully with EC rules, and partly to make sure the party cadre does not take anything lightly.” Himmatsingh Patel takes the absence of a high-decibel campaign for Rawal as a window of opportunity for himself. “When we were in power in the corporation, we built zonal offices, launched decentralised civic e-governance centres where citizens could avail all services, certificates, licenses and any other business with the civic body at a location close to their homes. But work from the state government’s side has been a complete failure. “Employment is thanks to Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation units that the Congress started. For a population of 16 lakh there is no government college – youngsters travel long distances and struggle with admissions in private colleges,” he says. As far as the BJP in Ahmedabad is concerned, Patel’s jibes can be ignored. Rawal’s win is a foregone conclusion, they say.