POLL BATTLE HEATS UP...
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. “Your (Congress) padyatra is to grab power and nothing else,” Modi said in Surendranagar. “Now you are walking hand-inhand in your yatra with those (reference to Medha Patkar) who opposed the Narmada Scheme. The voters will punish you in the coming elections,” he added.
On the third day of his election tour in Gujarat — he addressed four rallies on Sunday and one on Saturday — Modi accused the Congress of calling him names. “You have called me ‘maut ka saudagar‘(merchant of death). They talked about showing me my aukat (class) and said I have no aukat,” he said, referring to past criticisms of him by Congress leaders. Modi, who criss-crossed the state from Saurashtra to Bharuch, termed the Congress as a party of “princely family” and contrasted himself as hailing from an “ordinary family”.
Meanwhile, in Saurashtra’s coastal region, Shah congratulated the BJP government for removing encroachments and ensuring peace. In Dwarka, he referred to the communal violence in the state during the Congress’s reign, said there was now peace in the entire coastal belt, and asked people to choose between peace and violence.
“Gujarat became the number one state because people voted for BJP in the past 27 years and they do not want to change their political affiliations,” he said at Mangrol in Junagadh.
Later in the day, Gandhi hit back from his rally in Rajkot. He accused the BJP of trying to protect the “real culprits” behind the Morbi tragedy. He also accused the BJP of taking away rights of tribespeople. Gandhi said he did not intend to politicise the October 30 tragedy. “But the question arises that no action was taken against those responsible for the tragedy. Security guards were arrested but those responsible were not arrested,” he told the gathering in Rajkot.
The contract for operating the bridge was with the Oreva Group, which was not named by the police in the first information