How Bhupendra Patel won Ghatlodia seat in 2017 polls amid Patidar Agitation

Ghatlodia MLA Bhupendra Patel was sworn in as the 17th chief minister of Gujarat on 13 September 2021. Ghatlodia constituency is located in Gujarat's financial capital Ahmedabad and is a well-developed residential cum commercial area in the district. The constituency came into existence after being carved out during the delimitation that took place in 2008. Ghatlodia is one of the most prominent constituencies as it has witnessed only two Legislative Assembly elections in 2012 & 2017 and gave Gujarat two chief ministers both from BJP. 

Bhupendra Patel wins Ghatlodia in 2017 amid Patidar quota agitation

In the 2012 Gujarat assembly polls, BJP candidate Anandiben Patel won after defeating the Congress' Rameshbhai Patel with a margin of over 1 lakh votes. She was then elected as the first woman chief minister of Gujarat. In 2017, Bhupendar Patel won the seat for BJP again after defeating the Congress candidate Shashikant Bhurabhai with a large margin of 1 lakh 17 thousand votes. In 2021, he was elected as the chief minister of the state. 

Notably, Patel was able to win the election even when Ghatlodia saw the major impact of the ‘2015 Patidar Agitation’. The Patidar community has been dominating Gujarat's political scene for decades with 15% representation in the state cabinet, the economically powerful and politically influential community which is electorally important in the state. 

In 2015, the Patidars and BJP relationship soured as Hardik Patel led the Patidar reservation agitation seeking Other Backward Class (OBC) status. The demonstration was attended by thousands of people and incidents of violence, arson was reported resulting in a curfew in several cities and towns. Amid massive protests, fourteen Patidars were killed. The 2017 assembly polls took place at the peak of the Patidar Andolan. Though BJP managed to win it was considered the party's worst performance in the last 20 years as it manage to win only 99 seats in the 182-seat assembly. Congress managed to win around 77 seats as the Patidar community's support played a major role.  

In 2016, the then CM Anandiben Patel, who lost control of the agitation was replaced by Vijay Rupani. The saffron party later then went on to replace Rupani with Bhupendra Patel — the first Kadva Patel and the fifth Patel to become CM of Gujarat. The step was taken in a bid to pacify the Kadva section which primarily began the quota agitation. In an attempt to woo the Patidar community back, the BJP government came up with an ordinance that would provide reservations for the economically weaker sections (EWS). The Centre in January 2019 implemented the 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) from the general category by amending the Constitution.

Cut to 2022, the Patidars’ anger against BJP seemed to have dissolved as Hardik Patel who was the face of the Patidar agitation in Gujarat between 2015 and 2016  joined the saffron party. In November 2022, the Supreme Court in a 3:2 majority decision upheld the 10% reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions and government jobs that excluded the poor among the SCs, STs, and OBCs. Following the apex court's decision, Patel stated that the Centre's decision on EWS reservation has resolved many issues of the Patels in Gujarat.