At a time when all eyes are on Vadodara with Narendra Modi filing his nomination for the Lok Sabha seat, a city BJP leader and MLA from the area has plunged headlong to campaign for a Gandhi.

Yogesh Patel, 64, an MLA from the Manjalpur Assembly constituency in Vadodara, has been camping in Uttar Pradesh to campaign for Maneka Gandhi, the BJP candidate from Pilibhit.

According to Patel, it is his decades-old relations with the Gandhi family that prompted him to rush to Pilibhit, even as his own city is gearing up to elect Modi.

“Since 1982, we have been supporting Manekaji in each election. Earlier when she used to contest as an Independent and later when she became a member of the BJP,” Patel told Business Line over phone from Pilibhit. In every election, Patel, a close aide of Maneka, takes along with him a group of around 20 local residents to campaign for her.

“We will campaign for her son Varun Gandhi as well. They also visit Vadodara to campaign for us in local elections,” he said.

Patel had started the Sanjay Vichar Manch in Vadodara after the demise of Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 to propagate his ideology.

Strong ties “We have a strong attachment to Manekaji. She had conducted her first rally at Polo ground in Vadodara in 1982,” he recalled. Maneka has been campaigning for Patel for the Assembly polls in Vadodara since 1990, when he was a Janta Dal candidate.

Later, Patel contested on a BJP ticket in the subsequent elections. Maneka and Varun joined the BJP in 2004.

Varun is contesting as a BJP candidate from Sultanpur, a few kilometres away from Amethi, from where his cousin Rahul Gandhi is contesting.

When asked if his absence from the local constituency would adversely affect the prospects of the BJP cornering more votes for Modi, Patel declined, saying, “Our sangathan (organisation) is strong in my constituency. We have built strong relations with voters as the BJP holds this seat since 1995. We are confident of Modiji’s win with a record margin.”

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