Gujarat will go to polls in less than 90 days.
NEW DELHI: The internal turmoil in the Congress at the national level has come at an apt time for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which, quoting claims made on the basis of internal surveys, has widened the expected vote share vis-à-vis Congress by at least 5% in Gujarat which goes to poll in less than 90 days.
The Congress had come close to dislodging the BJP’s almost 26- year rule in the last election in December 2017, when it won 77 seats with a vote share of 41.5% in the state with 182 Assembly seats. In the last election, Congress had Ahmed Patel, the last word on the party’s affairs in the state, someone whom the party will have to do without in this election. He passed away in November 2020.
The internal turmoil in the party in view of the election for the national president and the power game in neighbouring Rajasthan has left national leaders with no time and energy to focus on Gujarat, leaving the party’s fate to the state leaders who are facing strategies that are being devised by the top leaders of BJP and AAP.
AAP national president Arvind Kejriwal, party sources told The Sunday Guardian, is personally handling the election related developments in Gujarat and taking every small decision. He is scheduled to do more than 20 rallies in the state. The AAP has not announced any CM candidate; The Sunday Guardian has learnt that it will a choice between state president and the 33-year-old Gopal Italia, who is a prominent Patidar face of the party, well known journalist Isudan Gadhvi and former Congress MLA Indranil Rajguru who contests from the Rajkot East seat which is represented by BJP heavyweight and former CM Vijay Rupani. In the past, Kejriwal had announced Bhagwant Mann as the CM face just 32 days before the Punjab polls.
AAP functionaries who are working in the state and had given positive results in Punjab, told The Sunday Guardian that the importance of Gujarat elections can be gauged from the fact that Kejriwal is going to the state almost weekly in view of the national message that will generate from Gandhinagar if the AAP is able to come to power in the state. “The media perhaps does not realize how strong organizationally we have become in Gujarat. Now the state machinery has started realizing this. Anti-incumbency was there in the last election as the results showed, it is present now too. The only difference this time is that there is a party (AAP) which is systematically using this anti-incumbency to its advantage,” a senior functionary of AAP told The Sunday Guardian.
The AAP is simultaneously also speaking about the “internal battles” in the Congress which is going to negatively affect its poll preparations, thereby leaving it in a vulnerable position against the BJP. “The AAP is focusing on telling the people of Gujarat that when a new government comes, it comes up with new schemes, new public policies; people know what new things we did in Delhi and are now doing in Punjab. This narration has become a talking point here,” another functionary who played a crucial role in the Punjab election said.
However, Mahendra Patel, state BJP vice president and former IAS officer, while speaking to The Sunday Guardian, claimed that the AAP was going to be restricted to zero seats in the state. “In the 2017 elections too, people were talking about anti-incumbency, but we came to power. We lost some votes in that election because of the Patidar agitation. However, in 2019, we won all the seats and were leading in 173 Assembly seats. If you look at the data, in Gujarat, since 1995, the vote share of BJP has increased. In the last one year the BJP has got more than 90% votes in by-elections and local polls. We have never seen anti-incumbency in Gujarat since 1995 because the government does so much that people elect the BJP again; so that more work can be done,” Patel said. According to him, the “tall, false claims” of AAP were exposed now. “AAP will get zero seats; you take it from me in writing that they will win zero seats. They are good at media management, they have created YouTube channels that show pro-AAP content as if that is a genuine report filed after speaking to genuine voters. People of Gujarat know the working of AAP. They know how Arvind Kejriwal, in every election, talks about cleaning of the Yamuna river and still it remains as it is. In Gujarat, the Sabarmati front has become a world-class tourist destination. There is not a single home in Gujarat where there is no tap water, 24-hour electricity, more than 30 universities have come up. You tell me why people will not vote for BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi?”
On the other hand, Dr Manish Doshi, Chief Spokesperson of the Indian National Congress in Gujarat, believes that there was a lot of anger against the BJP on the ground and voters were waiting to vote for the Congress which is the only party that has been fighting on the street for the common man all these years.
“Journalists ask us why Congress has not been in power for so many years in Gujarat. Have they asked the BJP why did the metro train project that was announced in 2004, take 18 years to be launched? Have they asked why the Rs 3,500 crore project is now more than Rs 12,500 crore, whose money was lost and who took the money? As far as AAP’s chances are concerned, AAP is only present on social media. They don’t even have candidates to give tickets to. All their candidates are imported from Congress. AAP is not getting 182 candidates to fight the elections and they are claiming that they are sweeping the elections. They are just working on dividing Congress votes so that BJP remains in power. AAP is nowhere in the game,” he said.