Congress won Gujarati hearts

needed as Congress president. The tally he mopped as the party’s chief campaigner was secured against the oft-tested Modi charisma that was a lethal mix of parochial emotion and religious nationalism.

The PM’s final thrust before the second phase pulled it off for the BJP in Ahmedabad and Vadodara where subliminal communalism is a constant waiting to be stoked. The Congress’s top leaders at the local level were sons of former chief ministers without their ancestral mass base: Bharat Solanki, Siddhartha Patel and Tushar Chaudhary. Pragmatic urban voters did not perceive them or the moribund opposition as a substitute, especially with the BJP being in power at the Centre under Modi—its Mr Teflon.

So how will the results, including the Congress’s defeat in Himachal play out at the national level? The BJP will do well to take a closer look at its policies and their implementation. Demonetisation and shoddy enforcement of goods and services tax had badly hit small businesses in quasi urban centers — where agrarian distress is next door and unemployment a burning issue.

There was evidence of the tight job market weakening Modi’s hold on young voters across castes. They used to be his selfpropelled engines in the past that turned adversarial in these elections. Hardik’s rebellion mirrored that change.

The Patidar leader’s long-term utility for the Congress is enhanced by the BJP’s consistent bid to play down his appeal in the influential community. Even after results, the saffron party said it was done in by “kapaas (cotton farmers), not by (Hardik’s quota outfit) PAAS.”

Be that as it may, Rahul will be better off co-opting Hardik and the other two caste icons — Jignesh and Alpesh who have made it to the new assembly from North Gujarat. They all have political timbre to become leaders of consequence in the Congress’s ongoing generational shift. For instance, Jignesh is educated and is a good speaker like the other two. He can be the Congress’s pan-India answer to Mayawati whose appeal is diminishing.