Poll battle heats up with rally overdrive in Gujarat
AHMEDABAD/SURAT/RAJKOT: Campaigning for the assembly elections in Gujarat kicked into high gear on Monday with top leaders descending on the battleground regions of Saurashtra and south Gujarat that go to the polls in the first phase on December 1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at three rallies in Surendranagar, Navsari and Jambusar as part of his campaign blitz in the final weeks of the election campaign. Union home minister Amit Shah addressed rallies in Saurashtra’s coastal region of Dwarka and Junagadh. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed his first public meetings in the western state in Rajkot and Surat, taking a break from his ongoing mass contact programme, Bharat Jodo Yatra. And, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held a rally in Amreli, promising one million jobs and free electricity if his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) comes to power in its maiden electoral foray in the state.
Modi attacked the Congress. “Your (Congress) padyatra is to grab power and nothing else,” he said in Surendranagar. Shah said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ensured peace in the state. Gandhi accused the state government of trying to hide the real culprits behind the death of 141 people in a bridge collapse last month in Morbi town. Kejriwal asked voters to give the AAP a chance and said both major parties had failed the people.
Eighty-nine seats in the Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions, dominated by Patidars and other farming communities, will go to the polls in the first phase on December 1 and are considered the key to grabbing power in the state. The battle is particularly fierce in the 48 constituencies of the Saurashtra region, where the Congress flipped several seats in the 2017 election, riding a wave of discontent among farmers and traders and the agitation for quotas by Patidars. This time, the BJP is looking to take back many of the 28 seats the Congress won five years ago, while the AAP is hoping its promise of better governance delivery will help it win support, especially in the peri-urban and rural seats.
Unlike the 2017 elections, reservation for Patidars is not a poll issue this time. However, inflation and rising debt of farmers are some of the pre-dominant issues of the agrarian region of Saurashtra. Focus will be on the industrial powerhouse town of Surat, which the BJP has traditionally swept but saw a resurgent AAP break through the bipolar polity in last year’s municipal elections. The triangular fight in Gujarat — the first in the state since 1990 — will largely hinge on the AAP’S ability to hive off votes from the BJP and Congress, and Surat will be a bellwether for this phenomenon.
In Surat, slowing down of economy and its impact on small scale textile and diamond industries are some of the issues, other than inflation and unemployment.
The first phase is especially important given that the second round of elections in 93 constituencies on December 5 will be held across the BJP strongholds of central and north Gujarat. Results will be announced on December 8, along with Himachal Pradesh. The BJP, which is looking for its seventh straight assembly election victory, changed its chief minister and virtually the entire state cabinet last year in a bid to curb antiincumbency. The Congress has run a relatively quiet campaign focussed on grassroots workers, and the AAP is looking to make inroads in BJP and Congress vote bases. In his three rallies, Modi kept up his attack on the Congress and accused the Opposition party of repeatedly insulting him in the past.
SURAT/GANDHINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday raised the pitch in election-bound Gujarat by intensifying their attack on the Congress over a range of issues, and urged voters to re-elect the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
Modi took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, and Shah attacked the opposition party for allegedly compromising with development and national security during their rule at the Centre.
Elections to the 182-member Gujarat assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, respectively. The results will be announced on December 8. Addressing a gathering in Surendranagar town, Modi took a swipe at Gandhi’s nationwide rally, saying people who were dethroned long back were taking out a “yatra” to get back in power.
He also alleged that instead of talking about development, the Congress was saying it will show him his “aukat” (status). “Some people are doing foot march to get back to power. They are also taking along those who had stalled the Narmada project for 40 years through litigation and kept Gujarat thirsty for 40 years,” he said, referring to the Narmada Bachao Andolan spearheaded by activist Medha Patkar, who took part in the Congress rally in Maharashtra.
“In this election, the people of Gujarat will punish those who are doing this padyatra. People will also punish those who were against the Narmada project,” he said, without taking any names.
The PM also hit out at the opposition party for attacking him. “In the past, the Congress used words like neech aadmi (vile man), maut ka saudagar (merchant of death) and naali ka keeda (an insect) for me...,” he said, adding that he swallowed such insults because his focus is to make India a developed nation. In Jambusar, the PM praised the “double-engine government” – a reference to the BJP being in power both at the Centre and in the state. Shah, who addressed three rallies, also targeted the Congress. “After the abrogation of Article 370 [giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir] by Narendra
Modi, there has been peace... Before that, during the 10 years of Sonia Gandhi-manmohan
Singh government, any “Alia Maliya or Jamalia’ from Pakistan used to enter our borders and behead our soldiers...,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said: “The PM does not speak about the high price rise and inflation.”