Planned murder of politician stuns Dahod

Vadodara: Dahod district has a history of violence after polls, but these were limited to clashes between supporters or attacks on political leaders and candidates.
Few would have expected political rivalry to reach an extent of a planned murder of a prominent politician.
Many were discussing the possibility of the killing of Jhalod municipality corporator from the BJP Hiren Patel having its roots in politics.Patel was an active corporator and had even ensured that the BJP wrested the Jhalod municipality from Congress. The politics in Jhalod is dominated by the Katara family considered heavyweights in the area.
A former Vishwa Hindu Parishad member, Babu Katara had stunned veteran Somji Damor in 1999. He also won in 2004, but ended up being suspended from the party after being caught red-handed while trying to take a woman and a boy abroad along with him on the passports of his wife and son. He switched loyalties to the Congress ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections and contested the Lok Sabha polls that he lost.
Babu’s son Bhavesh had shifted loyalty much earlier and won the 2017 assembly polls on a Congress ticket. He was sulking as he had not been given a ticket by the BJP despite his dominance in Jhalod. Bhavesh too had cases registered against him in the past. His younger brother Amit had remained largely away from limelight, but his wife was made the president of the Jhalod municipality.
But BJP turned the tide against the Kataras in Jhalod, their hometown, by engineering defections and ensuring its candidate became the president. Patel had played a key role in the process and emerged as an influential politician in the area.
After Patel’s murder around a dozen corporators had made representations to the district superintendent of police (SP) that they were feeling unsafe. SP Hitesh Joysar said that the corporators had met him and he had assured them of cooperation.
“We will be taking custody of the accused nabbed by ATS and conduct further investigations,” the SP said.