Dinsha Patel does not have to look outside for enemies. He has enough within his own party — currently the Congress. Originally from the Janata Dal, Patel is dubbed as Late Gujarat strongman Chimanbai Patel’s trouble-shooter.
Despite being in the party for several years now, Dinsha is still seen as an outsider — at least among senior Congressmen who fought tooth and nail to oppose Chimanbhai’s entry into the Congress way back in the Nineties. Congressmen are opposing Dinsha just as they did when there was a move to instal him as state unit president and more recently, to project him as Gujarat chief minister and pit him against Modi in the Maninagar constituency during the Gujarat assembly elections in 2007.
The mild mannered Patel was no match for Modi and faced a near-rout in the elections. “Perhaps, there was an image problem,” said Madhavsinh Solanki, a detractor and former Union minister. “Modi apart, he was also defeated from his home constituency Nadiad,” Solanki pointed out.
A four-term MLA and five-term MP, Dinsha’s road to Delhi was facilitated by a faction which considers him a safe bet — a no-threat-to-anyone kind of a man. In addition, his caste also helped him. Being a Patel, he created the much-needed balance in the Union Cabinet. Bharat Solanki, the other minister from Gujarat, is a Kshatriya. In the caste politics of Gujarat, upsetting the Patels or Kshatriyas is something the Congress can’t afford to do at this juncture.
A protégé of Congressman and former Gujarat chief minister Babubhai Jashbhai Patel, Dinsha started off as a youth leader, proving his mettle during the Maha Gujarat agitation in 1956. It took him a good 30 years to graduate to national politics. But before that, he served as a Public Works Department Minister in the state — a portfolio which won him kudos. “(It was) the worst and most corrupt ministry but he (Dinsha) emerged clean,” said Shaktisinh Gohil, Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat assembly.
Those who have seen Dinsha grow from humble beginnings and actually practice Gandhian principles, however, said his image has taken a beating because of the caucus around him. More than Dinsha it is they (confidants) who rule the roost. “He is a simple man who holds Gandhian principles dear. There are no controversies or scandals which haunt him,” said state Congress chief Siddarth Patel.