Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi pack their bags for their next visit to poll-bound Gujarat later this week, the Dalit and Patel (Patidar) issues have returned to haunt the BJP in the State.

The two sensitive issues had forced the BJP last year to replace Anandiben Patel with Vijay Rupani as CM.

The Dalit issue resurfaced last week when some Patels allegedly thrashed two Dalit youths merely for sporting moustaches at village Limbodara in Gandhinagar district.

The Dalits, including policemen from the community, are routinely denied haircuts by local barbers in this backward area. They cannot mount a horse during marriage processions, in what is seen as a dark underbelly near the capital of a State that prides itself for its forwardness.

Later in the week, four members of a Dalit family were beaten up by the Patels on the last day of Navratri at Ganget village of Patan district, merely for watching the Garba festivities near a temple.

Spate of atrocities The spate of atrocities against Dalits continued on October 1, when a Dalit youth was lynched to death for watching Garba at village Bhadrania in Anand district. Police registered cases and counter-cases and arrested eight in the Anand case.

Since the Patels are being seen as the alleged perpetrators in many of these atrocities, the BJP is smelling a ‘conspiracy’ in the run-up to the crucial elections.

Party sources claim some of the Patidars and the Congress could be hand-in-glove in ‘inciting’ the Dalits to make sure they also turn anti-BJP ahead of the elections.

BJP chief Amit Shah has predicted that Assembly elections will be held by the first week of December.

The Dalit-Patidar issue became so serious that the PM was believed to have forced Shah to hold a two-hour meeting on Sunday with his bête noire Anandiben to sort it out.

According to some reports, Anandiben was trying to get an upper hand in the selection of BJP candidates, particularly those from her Patidar community.

These anti-Dalit happenings were reminiscent of the July 2016 incident at Una in Gir Somnath district, when some upper caste Hindus publicly thrashed four Dalit youths on suspicion of skinning the carcass of a dead cow.

The incident triggered a nationwide outrage shaking the nation’s conscience, and was among the main reasons for a change in leadership in Gujarat.

The BJP is trying to handle the influential Patels with a kid-glove policy.

Support for Rahul Last week, even as the Rupani government announced the formation of a commission to look into the demands of those outside the purview of the reservation policy, its meeting with the Patidar leadership, led by Hardik Patel, was almost a fiasco. Soon thereafter, Hardik expressed support for Rahul during his visit to the Saurashtra region, panicking the BJP.

Anti-incumbency vote Even as the BJP is trying to minimise the anti-incumbency vote going the Congress way, the Congress is trying to put its own chaotic house in order under the direct leadership of Rahul. Alpesh Thakore, convener of the OBC, SC and ST Morcha, is keeping both the major parties guessing about which way he will turn on October 9, when he announces his ‘affiliation’.

Meanwhile, Modi, Shah, Rahul and AAP leader Gopal Rai are trying to drum up support for their respective parties by paying frequent visits to Gujarat in quick succession. One by one, even simultaneously sometimes, they are scheduled to visit the State to address a number of rallies.

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