Mehsana Gives BJP the Jitters Ahead, Discontent Even in PM's Hometown

Mehsana/Vadnagar: It's not every day that you find a hardened BJP worker muttering under his breath that his party, which has been ruling Gujarat for the last 22 years, is on a sticky wicket.

When you do find one, that too in Vadnagar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home town, it is indicative of the discontent in parts of the state, where the BJP is aiming at returning to power for a fifth consecutive term.

Dikshit Patel, a long time BJP worker, is worried that the simmering anger of the Patidar community, upset over the violence in 2015 during the agitation for reservation, could brim over on election day, spelling trouble for the party. He is not the only one viewing the December 14 election with foreboding. The mood in the BJP camp in Mehsana district, which straddles seven constituencies, is tense.

Mehsana and Vadnagar fall in Mehsana district, but while Vadnagar is under the Unjha constituency, Mehsana city (known as Mahesana in the list of the state election office) is a separate constituency.