New Delhi: An old war horse, a former Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) worker, and ex home minister of Gujarat — the man in charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gaurav Yatra this year, the 68-year-old Gordhan Zadafia, has worn many hats.
Once considered close to former Gujarat Chief Minister, the late Keshubhai Patel — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bête noire — Zadafia is currently Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) vice-president.
As the BJP’s Gaurav Yatra completes its last leg in Fagvel in Gujarat’s Kheda district, travelling 4,500 km in 10 days, Zadafia told ThePrint that the “most important thing about the yatra is trust”.
“Whether it was in 1995, when the BJP wrested power in the state, or 2002, people’s faith in the BJP has been intact,” Zadafia said.
Zadafia’s association with the BJP has seen its share of ups and downs. In 2002, he was dropped from the state cabinet following the Gujarat riots.
In 2008, he floated his own party, the Mahagujarat Janata Party, which eventually merged with Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party.
“I repented for my disassociation from the party [the BJP],” Zadafia told ThePrint. “The party is my mother. I have risen in the party, so it is my duty to bring back BJP in the state.”
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From falling out with Modi to heading the 2017 yatra
BJP functionaries who know him praise Zadafia for his organisational skills and his knowledge of each functionary’s strengths.
It was this skill, in fact, that in 2018 made the then BJP national president Amit Shah put Zadafia in charge (along with Narottam Mishra and Dushyant Gautam) of Uttar Pradesh, the state that sends the highest number of representatives to Lok Sabha.
The gamble paid off — the party swept 62 of 80 seats in the state. In 2022, when the BJP faces a spirited challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shah and C.R. Paatil, the current president of the Gujarat BJP, once again turned to Zadafia to organise the Gaurav Yatra in five different routes.
Once considered close to leaders like Pravin Togadia, a former international working president of the VHP, and Sanjay Joshi, a former general secretary of the BJP — both known critics of Narendra Modi — the relationship between Zadafia and the BJP has seen a transformation over the past few years.
Zadafia himself had been part of the VHP for 15 years before joining the BJP in 1995.
Much has changed since the early 2000s, when he was the state’s home minister. The state has since seen four CMs — Modi, who remained in power until 2014 when he was elected prime minister, Anandiben, Vijay Rupani and, finally, the accidental chief minister Bhupendra Patel.
As for the yatra, it was an exercise that began in 2002, just after the Gujarat riots in which, according to official estimates, over 1,000 people — a majority of them Muslims — were killed.
At a time when the top BJP duo of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani was till unsure of retaining Gujarat on the back of Keshubhai Patel’s flagging popularity, Modi began the yatra at Fagvel.
The yatra has been held only twice after 2002 — before the 2017 assembly elections when the Patidar protests for reservation threatened the party’s chances, and now in 2022.
‘Atmosphere was charged during first yatra’
Zadafia was the home minister in 2002 when the post-Godhra riots broke out. The Modi government had faced criticism for not doing enough to control the situation.
Speaking to ThePrint, Zadafia said that the first yatra was a difficult one.
“The atmosphere was charged,” he told ThePrint. “The chief minister’s security was another challenge we had to keep in mind. It took huge logistical preparedness since the chief minister had to cover the entire state in the yatra.”
It was a month-long event, said Zadafia.
“In the middle of it, he had to attend meetings at Gandhi Nagar. So we made helipads in places, so he could do both,” he said. “We organised meetings for 50,000 to 1 lakh people, even at small places. The cadre was ready to bring back the BJP.”
Jayantibhai Barot, a spokesperson for the party, a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, and a man who was reputed for his integrity, was in charge of that yatra.
Zadafia, who returned to the BJP in 2013, was deputed to convince Patidars to call off their agitation. In 2017, he was made in charge of the Gaurav Yatra together with I.K. Jadeja. The BJP’s aim that year was to ensure that the Patidar anger didn’t hurt their chances of securing yet another term.
The BJP survived, but at a reduced tally of 99 seats.
A Gujarat BJP secretary who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint that the “2017 yatra was not as effective as the earlier one because of the Patidar anger”.
“The previous yatra was a huge success. Yatras are only successful if they originate from a movement, such as the Ram Mandir movement that L.K Advani led. Or they need a leader like Narendra Modi to lead it. The 2017 yatra didn’t have a popular leader to lead it,” the leader said.
The importance of yatras
The BJP’s Gaurav Yatra is aimed primarily at galvanising the party cadre and voters before the upcoming assembly elections.
A BJP leader who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint that at the time of the first Gaurav Yatra, tensions ran high in the BJP’s Gujarat unit.
“Senior leader and former chief Minister Keshubhai Patel didn’t want him [Modi] in the chief minister’s chair, nor did leaders like Suresh Mehta, Kashiram Rana, and Rajendra Rana (Rajendrasinh Ghanshyamsinh Rana)”.
Keshubhai Patel was persuaded to attend the yatra, while Mehta, a former chief minister of Gujarat, left even before the rally began in Fagvel, the leader said. In addition, Rajendra Rana, the then BJP president, didn’t even mention Modi in his speech.
But Modi remained undeterred, the leader said — seeing people’s response, he attacked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for her Italian connections and accused the “perpetrators” of the riots of polarising the state.
The BJP swept the election that year, winning 127 of the assembly’s 182 seats.
Indravijaysinh. K. Jadeja, a former minister from Gujarat who was in charge of another yatra in 2012 called the ‘Vivekanand Yuva Vikas Yatra’, said Modi had the “unique ability to connect with the masses” and that “Modi is a yatri who learnt the importance of a yatra very early on in his life.”
“His life has been full of yatras, whether it was as a pracharak or when he was in charge of Advani’s Somnath yatra in Gujarat,” he said.
According to Gujarat BJP secretary Mahesh Kaswala, Modi was “inspired” by Advani.
“Advani used to say he is a yatri who organises many yatras in his life for the growth of the party,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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