Clad in a bright pink bandhani sari and a turban, Vav MLA Geniben Thakor mounts a mare on a hot summer day in Pataliya village of Danta taluka. Amid a cheering crowd, as the horse starts trotting to the campaign venue just 100 metres away, the 47-year-old Congress legislator takes a child in her arms.
“In the entire district, there is only one Banas ni ben — Geniben. All communities consider me their sister. In return, I ensure security and promise to resolve your issues. You have to promise to not be lazy and go to vote (on May 7),” Thakor, who has been fielded by the Congress from the north Gujarat district, tells a crowd in Sembaliya village from where she kicked off her campaign in the Danta Assembly segment. She goes on to seek blessings in the form of votes from this village dominated by her community.
Around 150 kms away in Khimanavas village, her BJP rival Rekha Chaudhary, 44, sips some tea, and walks into a wedding feast where Sarpanch Vardaji Rajput’s nephew is getting married.
Rekha introduces herself as “Banas ni dikri na vandan” (greetings from the daughter of Banas). “I am here and stand by you as your daughter for all your issues. I will be there like a daughter who comes running when the family faces any problem. You have to take care of your daughter; then, your daughter will take care of you.”
As her cavalcade speeds away to Khadol village of Suigam taluka that shares a part of its border with Pakistan, she stops as she comes across a besna (condolence meeting). She condoled with the bereaved family members, before proceeding further.
Banaskantha is the only Lok Sabha constituency among the 26 in Gujarat where the Congress and the BJP have pitted two women against each other. While Thakor pitches herself as a “sister”, her BJP rival wants to be seen as “Banaskantha’s daughter”.
Although a first-timer, Chaudhary is no stranger to politics. Her grandfather Galbabhai Patel was the founder of Banas Dairy, now the largest in the Amul milk co-operative conglomerate. The late Galbabhai laid the foundation stone on 122 acres near Jagana village in 1971 to set up the dairy plant under the Operation Flood programme launched by National Dairy Development Board. Chaudhary has a doctorate in Maths and has been a professor for the past 22 years.
The district has a sizeable population of Chaudhary or Anjana Patel that constitutes nearly 13 per cent of the total votes in the constituency — only second to Thakor votes that are around 18 per cent. Banaskantha shares its border with Rajasthan and Pakistan. The district also houses the Nada Bet, where the Gujarat government has developed the border tourism under ‘Seema Darshan’ on the lines of Wagah in Punjab.
“During the Independence movement, industrialists helped (Mahatma) Gandhiji with their small or big funds. The same way, my brothers and sisters have offered me funds as the current elections are to ensure democracy in a free country,” Thakor, in reference to her election crowd-funding, tells the gathering at the small tribal village of Toda. She has also issued a QR code for people willing to fund her campaign.
“Not sure about the amount collected (so far), but it must be more than Rs 1 lakh. In 2024, the poor and middle-class people are giving Rs 50 or Rs 100 to save democracy. Also, this is our old tradition that when a daughter or sister comes to a village they give her money,” Thakor tells The Indian Express as she campaigned across the tribal Danta taluka belt Tuesday.
Targeting the BJP, Thakor tells the villagers, “On the opposite side, they have all the resources and we have only principles. We all know that no one can defeat us when it comes to fighting on strong principles. As voting day comes closer, they will try to lure with all kinds of offers like dairy (various schemes and offers in Banas Dairy being the largest in the state), jobs or police pressure or even infighting within communities. They will also incite us but we need to have patience in democracy.”.
Vishal Darji, a 19-year-old first-time voter and an ITI student from Toda, who clicked Geniben’s photos and made videos said, “I follow her on social media and like what she says and does for the poor”.
Vav, from where Thakor has been elected as an MLA, is the largest Assembly seat in terms of voter count as well as the area spread over a 100-km radius with over 3.2 lakh voters. In 2017, she defeated the current Gujarat Sabha Speaker Shankar Chaudhary with a margin of over 6,600 votes.
Seven out of the nine Assembly constituencies in the district come under the Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat. Danta is the only Scheduled Tribe-reserved seat and has a Congress MLA — Kantibhai Kharadi. The BJP has won the rest four. Mavjibhai Desai, independent MLA from Dhanera, later extended his support to the saffron party. In 2019, Banaskantha had over 16.97 lakh electors. The number is expected to go higher this year.
Although the seat is with the BJP from 2013, the Congress continues to have a hold over it as the grand old party has wrested it six times.
Harisinh Chaudhary, a four-time BJP MP from the seat including the bye-elections of 1998 and 2013, was replaced by incumbent MP Parbatbhai Patel in 2019. Parbatbhai has been denied a ticket this time.
Thakor lists out various schemes such as MNREGA, irrigation, health, employment and forest rights brought in by the UPA governments and assures their effective implementation.
On the other hand, Chaudhary seeks vote to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for the third time with a vision for Banaskantha as a “hub of quality education and employment”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantee is to get the work complete. We just saw that after the struggle for 500 years and the sacrifice of lakhs of people, Ram Mandir’s pran pratishta was done under Modi’s leadership. Similarly, several temples have been revived under Modi’s leadership. Be it the old Dwarka city, Pavagadh temple, Kashi Vishwavanth or Ujjain corridor,” she tells the wedding gathering at Khimanavas village. She also touches upon the Nal Se Jal, Jyotigram, and Ayushman schemes.
“From today till May 7, tell at least 50 people everyday about Modi and his development work. No one should leave behind voting to ensure to make Modi the PM again. We have to return Modi’s debt by voting for BJP,” Chaudhary says as she signs off from Khadol and rushes to another campaign venue.
In Khadol, Chaudhary begins her address with a ‘Jai Jai Sri Ram’ and follows it by invoking the local deities and Gods.
“The Prime Minister has given me an opportunity to serve Banaskantha and shown trust in me as a woman. I will fulfill this. As mehnat maro swabha ane sewa mara sanskar me pahili che (hard work is in my nature and service is my culture). Galba kaka cared more about the downtrodden in every corner of Banaskantha than his family. I will take forward that service,” she adds.
Sharing her “visions” for Banaskantha, Chaudhary says she wants to make it the ‘best’. “I want quality educational institutions and bring the Central government projects pertaining to semiconductors and green hydrogen due to which our children who are getting education will get jobs, too and have a bright future.”
Yet, for the Kumbharkha villagers of Suigam taluka, the needs are more basic. “We get drinking water but nothing for irrigation. Despite assurances from the governments, our farms are still without water,” says 47-year-old Santokhben Chaudhary.
There is also an undercurrent of anger against Union minister Parshottam Rupala after his alleged comments on the Rajputs.
“We have no issues with the BJP, Congress or even Narendra Modi but we will not accept apman of the Kshatriya women,” says a 37-year-old Rajput woman from the community-dominated Khimanavas village. A fellow community woman joins her adding, the entire Kshatriya women are against Rupala’s comment. It is estimated that Banaskantha Lok Sabha constituency has around 1.5 lakh Rajput votes.
However, when pressed if the Kshatriya anger will have any fallout in Banaskantha, BJP district president and former Minister of State for Education Kirtisinh Vaghela says, “The protests are only created and fanned by a few Congress leaders. There is nothing among the community”.