Anandiben fighting ‘outsider' tag

PATAN: Legend has it that in 11th century, Queen Minaldevi, mother of King Siddharaj Jaisinh who ruled Gujarat wanted to build a beautiful round lake in Patan. Only one house obstructed the shape of the lake as the owner refused to vacate it. All her authority and money could not make the man budge.
Thousand years later, education minister Anandi Patel, the best known woman in Gujarat''s BJP, faces an uphill task of wooing 1.67 lakh voters as she also battles to erase the ''outsider'' tag.Patan, the ancient capital of Gujarat and a seat of learning for centuries, has been with the BJP during the last three elections but that hasn''t made her task easy.
Over 78,000 of its voters are urban and the remaining 90,000 from the rural areas. Its vote is divided between around 47,000 Patels, 11,000 Muslims, 10,000 Dalits, 20,000 Thakores and others.
Posing challenge to Anandiben, a close confidant of the BJP, is Congress candidate Kantilal Nanalal, a Patel who has been active for over four decades. He was elected on a Congress ticket in 1985 and fought as an Independent candidate thrice since then, losing every time by a small margin to the BJP.
"As both the candidates belong to the same Leuva Patel community, caste factor will be a non-issue," says Dwarkadas Patel (60), who manufactures pumpsets.
But what do the voters have in mind? In the Madarasa area of Patan town, a BJP stronghold, groups of people sit chatting together. The subject is politics. What else? "This was one of the five constituencies that Narendra Modi had considered safe for himself. But he sent Anandiben...let''s see what happens now," said Manjibhai Patel, an elderly farmer.
"Any local candidate would have surely won. Even Modi would not have faced a problem. But an outsider like Anandiben certainly cannot be our candidate," says Bansilal Modi, a middle-aged worker for a private firm.
Even women voters in this BJP stronghold are undecided. "I don''t know who will I vote for. What do you say? Whom should I vote for ?" asks Savita Patel, a housewife in her late 30''s. When the same question is posed to her friend Premila, she is all confused. When the question is simplified to ‘kamal ke panjo'', she says, "I vote for BJP. But I don''t know whether she (Anandiben) is good or bad."
No wonder both the candidates are quite hopeful. "People have accepted me though I am not local. Its only journalists who talk about my an being outsider. All the voters in Patan are with the BJP," says Anandiben Patel.
However, her rival Congress candidate Kantilal says "You can write that I have already won with a landslide margin. I belong to this place and people want me to represent them."
Asked about his rival, the 67-year-old Congress candidate says, "Everyone knows about her and what she is. Nobody will waste a vote on her. Besides, there is lot of discontentment amongst the local BJP workers. There were many strong candidates in Patan, why did they need to bring an outsider?"