Congress banking on Jignesh Mevani to shore up sagging fortunes in Saurashtra

Jignesh Mevani, who was appointed as the working president of the Gujarat Congress when he was still an Independent MLA in July 2022, has launched his first major political rally for the party.

The chosen launchpad is Saurashtra, a region where the party has been the worst hit, with over a dozen leaders and hundreds of workers defecting to the BJP. Saurashtra is also the region from where Mevani rose to political fame.

The 15-day Nyaya Yatra (March for Justice), which began from Saurashtra’s Morbi district last week, will culminate in Gandhinagar. Led by Mevani, along with Lalji Desai, OBC leader and President of Seva Dal, the rally is largely aimed at reviving the party’s foothold in the state ahead of the upcoming local and civic elections.

Voice against repeated tragedies

Mevani, a Dalit leader and an MLA from north Gujarat’s Vadgam, has been active for the past couple of months, leading party protests against various tragedies that have struck the state. Two weeks after the TRP gaming zone fire that killed 27 in Rajkot, Mevani and Desai kicked off a three-day hunger strike in Rajkot protesting against the tragedy.

“Due to the negligence caused by corruption among the BJP leadership and its chosen officers, 240 innocent people have been killed in various accidents in Morbi, Rajkot, Vadodara, Surat, Bharuch, and Ahmedabad. We are here to demand justice for them and ensure that innocent people do not fall prey to systematic government corruption and negligence in future,” Mevani told The Federal.

Need for an aggressive leader

Manish Doshi, spokesperson for the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, said the rally was aimed at gaining the party’s foothold back in Saurashtra, which is predominantly rural.

“The party has lost many senior leaders since 2017. Our organization in Saurashtra region has been the worst hit, with over a dozen leaders and hundreds of workers defecting to the BJP. We have lost veteran leaders such as Arjun Modhwadia from Saurashtra,” he said.

“The party needs an aggressive leader who can revive the morale of workers in the region, and Mevani seemed like the best choice for the task right now. Besides, there is a sizeable population of Dalits in Saurashtra region whom Mevani had led and consolidated during the Azadi Kooch rally in 2017. We are hoping he will be able to do it again,” Doshi added.

The Una campaign

Mevani rose to political fame in Gujarat along with two other youth leaders, Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor, in 2017.

A 2016 incident in which several men of a Dalit family were flogged at Una town in Saurashtra’s Gir Somnath district by upper caste men catapulted Mevani to prominence. He led a 15-day rally from Ahmedabad to Una in August 2017 as a mark of protest — bringing Muslims and Dalits on one platform by banking on a common sentiment against the BJP.

During that same time, Hardik Patel, a Patidar leader, rose to prominence after the Patidar Ananmat Andolan, while Alpesh Thakor, an OBC leader, did so because of his anti-liquor movement in north Gujarat.

Ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, the trio had supported the Congress, placing the then Anandiben Patel government in a tight spot. However, within a year, Hardik and Thakor switched loyalty to the BJP, leaving Mevani as the sole youth leader the Congress could bank on.

Rapid rise

However, as expected, his rise within the party did not go down well with the veterans.

“The party’s local leaders were disgruntled when Mevani was inducted into the Congress and then quickly appointed as its working president. Many leaders were unhappy with the attention he was showered with by the party top brass,” said a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.

“During the 2017 state polls, Rahul Gandhi held a joint public meeting with Mevani in Banaskantha. Mevani was still an Independent candidate. Many candidates were expecting to have an audience with Rahul but they did not get the opportunity. Since then, Mevani has risen exponentially within the party, especially after it lost an array of leaders to the BJP. There have been talks of giving him more responsibility,” said the leader.

Banking on new faces

However, Indira Hirway, author and political analyst, pointed out that the Gujarat Congress hardly has any options now.

“Most of its senior leaders, such as Arjun Modhwadia, Babubhai Bokhariya, Ambrish Der, Arvind Ladani, and CJ Chavda, who have defected to the BJP, are from Saurashtra. While the party still has leaders such as Paresh Dhanani from Amreli, who used to be a tall leader from the region, his defeat in the Lok Sabha polls seems to have pushed him on the back foot,” Hirway told The Federal.

She added that Mevani is a firebrand leader with a strong ground connect who has proven himself time and again. “He has been steady in his stand against the BJP despite an array of legal cases being slapped against him in several states. He came into prominence from a massive public movement, which is something the Congress can hope to repeat ahead of the local polls. The party has also brought back Lalji Desai, who is leading the rally along with Mevani,” Hirway pointed out.

Party insiders say the Congress plans to launch similar public outreach programmes across the state ahead of the local polls, where new faces and youth leaders will be given a chance to lead. The party also aims to strengthen its hold in rural areas that once used to be a Congress bastion until it lost those to the BJP as well in 2022.