View: Hardik Patel's move to BJP ahead of Gujarat elections is another loss for Congress

As has now become the trend, Patel’s joining the BJP has come as a fresh embarrassment for the Congress, which is seeing a virtual exodus of leaders from the party.

However, it remains to be seen whether the shift helps further Patel’s political prospects. He said that he was joining the BJP as a small soldier of Modi, a statement that sums it up. If Modi wants to give him an important responsibility, Patel’s career graph may rise, but it is also likely that he will have to work his way up the hierarchy of a party that is already a packed house.

Patel’s career has followed a path typical to Indian public life since Modi became Prime Minister in 2014 and the Congress could not even garner enough seats to get the official Leader of the Opposition post in the Lok Sabha twice in a row.

Modi’s rise at the Centre was accompanied by a steep decline of the Congress, which is the only party capable of mounting a national challenge to the BJP for a long time to come. Its decimation actually meant the national decimation of the political opposition space in the country, making the polity virtually unipolar.

In such a context, those who were ideologically opposed to the BJP and Modi placed their bets on those who could garner crowds against the BJP and could lead what seemed to be popular movements against the ruling party.

Hardik Patel became a face to reckon with when he led the Patidar movement seven years ago to demand quotas in jobs and educational institutions for the influential community. At this time, he displayed his ability to gather crowds and became a critic of the BJP government at the Centre and in the state.

In the absence of a credible political opposition to the BJP, Patel was seen as someone who could dent the party. However, the BJP, despite reverses in rural Gujarat in 2017, succeeded in holding on to power in the state.

Patel’s joining the BJP means that he will no longer be celebrated as a voice of dissent by those who are critical of the BJP. His struggles within the party are likely to be similar to his struggles within the Congress as its working president in Gujarat for three years.

There is unlikely to be a rousing reception for him and he will have to prove that he can work as a young activist and follow the discipline of the organisation. He cannot any longer be an autonomous dissenter.

Patel isn’t the only one to be prematurely feted by sections of the intelligentsia. Kanhaiya Kumar was similarly celebrated as a voice of dissent. He lost the Lok Sabha election from Begusarai in 2019 to the BJP’s Giriraj Singh by a huge margin and later joined the Congress, leaving his original party, the CPI.

A file photo of CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar addressing a protest 'dharna' against CAA and NRC in Patna on Tuesday, January 14, 2020. (PTI Photo)

Similarly, Jignesh Mewani, who won as MLA from Gujarat with the support of the Congress, was also celebrated as a voice of dissent. So was Chandrashekhar Azad Ravana, who too has not been able to convert the hype around him into electoral heft.

The latest to follow the path was farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, who was celebrated as someone who could take on the BJP when he protested for the repeal of the farm laws on the Ghazipur border for one year, blocking the expressway. However, despite the hype, the BJP won 46 out of 58 seats in western UP, seen as a hub of the farm movement. The Bharatiya Kisan Union also split recently and Tikait was even attacked in Bengaluru.

A file photo of Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait with farmers at the Ghazipur border in New Delhi. (PTI)

Hardik Patel’s challenge now would be to start afresh as a young member of a political party. He will have to get past the days of the hype that once surrounded him and work his way up with patience. It remains to be seen how he fits into this role.