palanpur many apologies to the architects of the hindutva wave who are anticipating a saffron surge in the countdown to the december 12 state polls its unemployment water and power that are on the peoples agenda in rural north gujaratselling hindutva may be a tough job for the bjp this time even though the region was badly hit during the riots and though the polarisation is quite evident in the countryside whether it will rise over caste considerations and translate into votes needs to be seenpeople here still talk about local issues image of the candidates the antiincumbency factor and misgovernance in the nadi ol area of vadnagar the birthplace of caretaker chief minister narendra modi people gather as one talks about politicswe do not have any problem with the muslims the main problem we face here is unemployment about 5000 people go to visnagar from here everyday in search of work we need water for our farms and for drinking and power for irrigating our fields we want industries that will provide work to our children says haresh desai a local advocatefew others chip in describing the acuteness of the problem someone cracks you may have been standing here for just five minutes but see the gathering of both young and old people if they had any work to do could they afford to waste time all we need is work a few kilometres away at kheralu two old farmers are sharing a cuppa to keep themselves occupied clad in tattered clothes their deepset eyes and weatherbeaten faces are quite representative of their loti own five bighas of land still i have to buy all the foodgrain i require there is no water not even for the cattle we are forced to sell our belongings or borrow money to survive we have been voting on caste lines every time this time we have found a candidate who works for us says viramji thakore a member of the thakore community that dominates the political scenario in north gujaratmoving further north one reaches hingathia an adivasi village outside khedbrahma it was former chief minister amarsinh chaudharys constituency for years dont go inside the homes they will rob you warns a youngster as one asks for the way to another farflung villagethere is no water and food though people are ready to work they do not get any nor are they given paltry loans to run pan shops people are forced to rob others for survival laments dinesh pargi giving vent to his frustration in chaste hindi like many others standing there he did his graduation with hindi from a local collegewe are all eagerly waiting for the poll day we will not have to go far to fetch water on the day they bring water tankers on election day and let us take away as much we need he saysmuslims voters have a sizeable presence in siddhpur constituency of patan district a stronghold of bjp stalwart jaynarayan vyas about