AHMED PATEL FOCUSED ON TRIBAL BELT

AHMED PATEL TO MANAGE GUJ TRIBAL BELT

Saturday, 01 February 2014 | Nayan Dave | Jhalod (Dahod District)

1

2

3

4

5

In order to get 272-plus seats in the upcoming general elections, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is leaving no stone unturned to win all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. Knowing the fact, All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Sonia Gandhi has put none other than her most trusted sergeant Ahmed Patel to capture maximum votes from the tribal belt — Ambaji to Umargam — which influences minimum seven Lok Sabha constituencies.

The political secretary to the UPA chairperson, 64-year-old Ahmed Patel is already in a mission mode. Last month he addressed a huge rally of tribal people at Virampur in North Gujarat’s Banaskantha district. On Thursday, the crisis manager of the Congress party addressed a public rally of almost 20,000 people near Jhalod in tribal dominated Dahod district, just 30 km away from the Madhya Pradesh border in Rukhdi village. “Ahmedbhai is set to address many more rallies in the tribal belt in coming days. Already three rallies have been planned in Chhota Udepur in Central Gujarat as well as Bardoli and Mandvi in South Gujarat in February,” said Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) spokesman, Manish Doshi.

The emphasis on nearly 500 km long tribal belt spread across northern, central and southern parts of Gujarat put by the Congress is an obvious move. The tribal belt consisting 17 per cent of total voters in Gujarat have a sway in at least seven Lok Sabha constituencies — Sabarkantha, Godhara, Dahod, Chhota Udepur, Bharuch, Bardoli and Valsad. Of these, four seats are completely dominated by tribal voters. In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009, Congress secured three out of these four constituencies including Dahod, Bardoli and Valsad and the BJP managed to win in only one — Chhota Udepur.

Patel, who has camped at his hometown, Bharuch, described the rally organised by ‘Gujarat Adivasi Manch’ for tribal farmers and women on Thursday in Dahod district as ‘non-political’, saying, “I have come here to solve your problems. The rally has nothing to do with elections.” However, he made it a point to convey the message on how the UPA Government ‘worked’ for people through schemes like MGNREGA, Right to Education and Food Security Bill. He also criticised the Gujarat Government on electricity to tribal people and diversion of Tribal Development Authority’s fund for other purposes.

Though the public meeting was hardly for an hour, the Rajya Sabha MP not only visited important Congress workers’ residence but also met religious leaders of minority communities in Dahod and Godhra districts apart from strategic meetings with tribal leaders in the areas till late in the night. “In the coming 3-4 days, he would have a series of strategic meetings with leaders and prominent people of tribal, minority and other communities in Vadodara, Chhota Udepur and Bharuch areas,” said a source close to Patel.

‘Drop Tushar from Union Ministry’

Gujarat Government spokesperson and senior Cabinet Minister Nitin Patel demanded that Tushar Chaudhary should be dropped from Union Ministry immediately as he not only provoked the crowd but also sat on a dharna which is unconstitutional. Patel said the former Minister of State for Tribal Affairs provoked a mob to create ruckus. The crowd was on rampage and attacked the Collector’s office under his direction. Patel in a statement asked the PM that Union Minister who sits on dharna in public and damages public property should be expelled. Ministers are supposed to respect the Constitution, he added.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/ahmed-patel-to-manage-guj-tribal-belt.html