RS poll win shot in the arm for Congress but bigger battle remains
With exit of many Cong MLAs, BJP will go to Gujarat assembly polls with an extra edge
AHMEDABAD: The victory of Congress heavyweight Ahmed Patel in the most dramatic Rajya Sabha poll in recent memory has breathed fresh life into the otherwise crumbling Gujarat Congress months before the state goes to election.
The win is set to raise the stakes dramatically in the December assembly elections, given that BJP president Amit Shah has already set an ambitious target of 150- plus seats in the 182-member House. And to achieve it, the B JP may now have to bank on Congress turncoats.
“I am happy. I would like to thank the Congress MLAs. We will fight assembly elections with the same enthusiasm and resolve,” Patel said after pulling off an unlikely midnight victory.
The Congress had 57 M LA still a fort night ago but could manage the votes of just 43 in Tuesday’s polling, thanks to a spate of resignations and cross-voting. However, the fact that the party managed to keep its flock of loyal ML As together amid“attempts of horse-trading” reflects that the party has emerged as a united house just in time.
Rebel MLA and former chief minister Shankersing Vaghela, six of his loyalists and San and legislator Karmshi Pa tel—among the 42 MLAs taken to Bengaluru — cross-voted. But this did not prove enough for the BJP to topple Patel. And with the exit of the Vaghela faction, which chose to part ways by cross-voting in the presidential elections in July, the Congress is now calling itself a “united house”. “We are united. The BJP’s tactics could not break us ,” said Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil. But unity has come at a price. The party has lost the support of 13 MLAs since the exit of Vaghela on July 21. And the Congress’ loss is BJP’s gain.
The BJP will still go to the assembly elections with an edge over the Congress. This is despite the fact the election will be the first since Na rend ra Mo di moved to Delhi as Prime Minister in 2014.
The Congress will also miss its master strategist V ag he la, who is known to play his cards close to the chest and is yet to announce his next move.
On the other hand, six other Congress MLAs who resigned days ahead of the RS polls are expected to help the saffron party win back various sections of society such as Patidars, tribal and farmers with whom the BJP has of late been trying to revive its equations. Three of them have already joined the B JP and many others are likely to follow suit. Despite the win, Congress had to scout for every single vote.
“I asked the Congress so many times not to put the reputation of Ahmed Patel at stake because this RS election will have an impact on other state as well as national elections. But the party is not paying heed even to its MLAs,” said Vaghela.
Tejshree Patel and Prahlad Patel, who joined the BJP along with Balwatsinh Rajput, represent North Gujarat – a Congress stronghold and the epicentre of the Patidar agitation.