Shankarsinh Vaghela, the maverick of Gujarat politics, claims he was the first to wean away the Patel or Patidar community from the Congress in 1975. “I approached Dr AK Patel to contest on a Jana Sangh ticket. But he didn’t want to,” Vaghela told ET Magazine at his palatial farmhouse Vasant Vagado on the outskirts of Gandhinagar. “He said he would not get minority votes if he contested as a Jana Sangh candidate.”Vaghela’s long-time associate Harshad Brahmbhatt remembers that first meeting where he was also present. Brahmbhatt says Patel was a respected doctor in Vijapur, Mehsana, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was keen to woo educated, popular figures into its fold. “He was willing to contest but not on a Jana Sangh ticket.He was even ready to accept the symbol but not represent the party,” says Brahmbhatt, a jovial man fond of wearing heavy gold ornaments, at his home in suburban Ahmedabad. Eventually, after much goading, Patel contested as an independent with the Jana Sangh backing and won.The 1975 assembly election was the first time that Indira Gandhi-led Congress’s iron grip on Gujarat loosened and a broad Janata Front coalition, led by the splinter Congress (O), grabbed power. That was the beginning of the Jana Sangh’s, and later the BJP’s, gradual chipping away at the Congress’s Patel vote bank in the state. AK Patel later formally joined the Jana Sangh and stayed with it and its successor, the BJP, eventually retiring as a Rajya Sabha member in 2006. By the mid-1990s, riding on Patels’ firm backing, the BJP was in power with a convincing majority.The riots of 1985 and later of 2002 and the Ram temple agitation in between consolidated Hindu communities behind the BJP, which has had an unbroken grip on power since. That social cohesion is now slackening as the inherent divisions of castes, sects and communities become starker in the absence of a “common rival”.Social scientist Ghanshyam Shah gives the example of Indian Independence; the nation stayed united till 1947 and then it started fragmenting as various social groups looked at their own interests. “How long can you sustain an emotional issue? At the ground level, the Hindu society remains caste-ridden and has conflicting interests,” Shah told ET Magazine.Politicians from both the BJP and the Congress say that a “fear of the other” had united Hindus. Over the past 15 years Muslims in the state have been marginalised politically.Though they constitute about a tenth of the population, there are only two Muslims in the assembly and just one — Ahmed Patel — in Parliament.“It is true that the Hindu samaj is now more divided than earlier,” says Shambhuprasad Tundiya, BJP Rajya Sabha member and head of the party’s Gujarat Scheduled Caste front. “Gujarat has been peaceful for a long time under the BJP rule and one generation has gone in the meanwhile,” says Tundiya, who is a Dalit and the head priest of Savgun Dham in Jhanjharka, a backward village about 100 km from Ahmedabad.Tundiya, who was initiated into the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh when he was just 12 years old by Narendra Modi himself, says, “The new generation has no idea what it was like before.”A senior state RSS leader says his children do not even bother about the Ram temple. Another rues that youngsters are chasing material wealth: “They want Porsches and fancy mobiles.” But the economic opportunities to acquire them are hard to come by. Lack of economic opportunities has led to jostling among groups that get quota preference in government jobs and education institutions and those who do not have any.The Patidar agitation led by 24-year-old Hardik Patel demanding reservation in government jobs and educational institutions that began in 2015 has grown into a fullblown political movement with the young leader aligning with the Congress.So have the movements led by OBC leader Alpesh Thakor and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani. Himanshu Patel, a trustee of Umiya Mata temple and a Congress leader from Gandhinagar, says that Prime Minister Modi promised two crore jobs every year but jobs actually dwindled.In a research paper on Gujarat’s economic growth, social scientist Shah has observed that though labour was moving from farm to non-farm sector, industries were capital-intensive and the rate of employment was slow and erratic. “Employment per factory has significantly declined, from 99 workers per factory in 1960-1961 to 62.40 persons in 1990-1991 and to 59.44 in 2005.Whereas average invested capital per factory has increased 2.5 times in less than a decade,” Shah said in the 2013 paper, “Politics of Governance: A Study of Gujarat”, written for Lokniti, CSDS. Gujarat government came out with a policy to help small industries in 2015 after large-scale shut downs. RBI estimates nearly 50,000 small and medium units were shuttered that year.Politicians across party lines, RSS leaders, academics, businessmen and laypersons, whom ET Magazine has interviewed, admit that the Hindu communities and even sub-communities are drifting apart. Most of them spoke off the record. The picture that emerges is the Sangh Parivar’s Hindu unification project in Gujarat is unravelling as its need to cling to power grows. As a senior RSS leader put it: “It is politics that is ruining the unity.”Temples dot the skyline of most cities, towns and villages in Gujarat. The ideal Hindu in the state necessarily had to be a temple-going person, which led to a mushrooming of temples and sects, each with strong community, caste or even family domination. Gradually, temples have become showcases of wealth, power and influence of different communities, particularly Patels; Swaminarayan Vadtal, Akshardham in Ahmedabad, Umiya Mata in Unjha and the newest Khodaldham in Rajkot.Political consolidation required a sociological category larger than caste and it was fulfilled by these temples, often controlled by one dominant community but with a multi-caste following.The followers were expected to become a part of homogenous congregations beyond caste. Spiritual gurus and bards such as Morari Bapu and Ramesh Oza, who retold mythological stories from the Ramayana and the Bhagawata, created their own congregations. In the past 15 years, an observer says, the BJP led by Modi has become adept at managing this “temple politics” and their expansionist impulses. There was one hitch though.The struggle for power within these set-ups was not on congregational lines but caste lines and the spoils of power were also distributed accordingly. Each caste and community started counting the number of ministers and government positions they could wrangle. When communities felt alienated from power, they attempted to close ranks around community leaders rather than congregation leaders.“The sense of caste is deepening. We have neoliberalism, competition and social insecurity with very little outside the caste to support people. In conditions of insecurity, you bank on each other. And primordial loyalties get strengthened. Each caste had a traditional support system. And that is now strengthened as a casteonly support system,” sociologist Shah was quoted in a separate media interview.A senior BJP leader said that these sects and temple trusts were indeed enormously influential and many of them actively supported his party. He said PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah closely knew most of them. Modi himself is a trustee of Somnath temple. Others members include Amit Shah and LK Advani. Former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel is the chairman. The Swaminarayan Vadtal sect openly supports the BJP. At a November 5 event, the temple’s chief administrator Maharaj Ghanshyam Prasad Das said the organisation will forever be indebted to this government.“Right now, we have tied a safa (headgear) to (Vijay) Rupani saheb, but that does not pay our debt. For that, we have to do a lot more. I want to make this definite appeal to all the devotees who are sitting here, watching through the internet or TV. It is the fortune of the people to have a king who is pure, people-loving and a visionary… We have such a king. It is Narendra Modi,” he reportedly said in the presence of Chief Minister Rupani.Rahul Gandhi was giving a hat-tip to the political importance of temples when he kicked off the Congress’ election campaign a year ago with a visit to the Umiya Mata temple, revered by the Patel community, especially Kadva Patels, a sub-community. In the past two months Gandhi has visited 21 temples in Gujarat.A senior monk at the BAPS Swaminarayan sect acknowledges there are rifts in the society. He told ET Magazine that the young are restless and addictions are increasing and that the sect is committed to working among youngsters. He insisted that his sect neither favoured a political party nor excluded any community. Devotees told ET Magazine that it is favoured by rich Patels, especially those living in foreign countries.A devotee-leader said the sect has always backed Modi and the BJP. He pointed to Modi's visit to Akshardham for its silver jubilee celebrations early November where he held the sect chief's hand on stage. "That was a clear signal to voters on whose side we were," the devotee leader said. When asked about it, a senior monk too admitted it could be interpreted that way.The other sub-community, Leuva Patels, inaugurated a mammoth temple called Khodaldham at Rajkot in January 2017. Among the top contributors to the building of the temple are reportedly rich traders and industrialists. Two temple trustees are fighting assembly elections on behalf of the Congress and a third is contesting on a BJP ticket. They have since resigned as trustees as per the temple bylaws.The trust itself seems to have taken a position - very similar to using leverage in multi-party business negotiations - that leaves the door open to whoever would cut the best deal. "We support Hardik's cause. 60% of Patidars are poor. We want something done for them. We are not supporting or favouring any political party but supporting the cause," Paresh Gajera, president of Khodaldham trust, told ET Magazine after meeting the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader.The Hindu majoritarian project is complete in Gujarat, as one observer put it. It also means that wresting power would now require either deepening the divisions or erasing Hindu diversity. That would require another emotional issue such as nationalism or patriotism; the Khodaldham temple inauguration, which was attended by over 20 lakh people over five days, set a Guinness World Record of most people (3 lakh) singing the national anthem simultaneously.