Gujarat goes to polls yet again with divisions, but of different kinds. In the 2002 assembly polls, the division was simpler. It was merely Hindus vs Muslims translated as BJP vs Congress. In 2007 polls, the nature of divisiveness has become complex. Now with the communal divide pushed into the subaltern from the overt, it is self-devouring division at play. In 2007, it is party workers and parivar against Modi, the sadhu brigade against Modi and even the disenchanted riot accused against Modi. But, there is still a but. In spite of creating these new divisions, Modi and his supporters stand smug. Because bets are not yet forthcoming on whether the Gujarati voter (read: the Hindu voter) is divided yet.

In the interim period between two assembly polls, after the communal divide, a divide of a different kind was ushered in, somewhat organically but nonetheless unanticipated. The BJP, backed by veteran Keshubhai Patel in Saurashtra, is anti-Modi. Splintering from the parent BJP party, a group of rebels under the label of Sardar Patel Utkarsh Samiti are teaming up with the Congress to fight Modi rather than BJP in Saurashtra and south Gujarat. To be fair, it is just not enough to blame and judge Modi alone for the 2002 riots, and the justice that has eluded the victims, for he has since thrived on the assumed support of the Gujarat electorate and complicit administration and state systems, rather than the BJP cadre. Funnily, this unshared credit and these spoils of victory triggered the first split.

... contd.