Amreli best chance for Cong to arrest clean sweep in Gujarat

Manas Dasgupta

Amreli, April 22

If the Congress hopes to win at least one out of the 26 seats in Gujarat, it would perhaps be Amreli which holds the best promises for the grand old party to arrest the BJP’s second consecutive clean sweep in the PM Narendra Modi’s home turf. The Modi wave has not entirely dissipated, but Amreli along with Junagadh seem to be among the very few constituencies in the state where the considerable sections of the voters seemed to be inclined at least to listen to the Congress point of view. 

The expectations have arisen from the improved performance of the Congress in the December, 2017, state Assembly elections in the Saurashtra region, particularly in the segments falling in Amreli and neighbouring Junagadh Lok Sabha constituencies. The Congress captured all seven Assembly seats in Junagadh and five of the seven in Amreli. But large scale defections from the Congress ranks to the BJP on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, including a senior leader who was since accommodated in the Vijay Rupani cabinet, has weakened Junagadh’s claim as the number one prospect for the Congress. 

Barring a few local level community-based leaders, Amreli by and large has so far remained untouched of the defection game. Considering its prospects, the Congress after some week-long deliberations decided to field the current Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Paresh Dhanani, a firebrand Patidar leader, for the seat to contest against the sitting BJP member Naran Kachadiya, also a Patidar. 

To the advantage of Dhanani, he has already scored a point because Kachadiya seems to be one of the very few re-nominated BJP members suffering from the anti-incumbency factor despite the pro-Modi sentiments among the voters. 

Dhanani was able to beat the pro-Modi wave to win the Amreli state Assembly seat three times, including in 2002, when the BJP swept the polls in the wake of the Godhra train carnage and the subsequent communal riots. His third victory impressed Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was looking for young faces to occupy important party posts, and appointed him the leader of the opposition ignoring the claims of several senior leaders. 

Since the “Modi withdrawal symptom” partially affected the state with his departure for Delhi in 2014, Amreli district seem to be slowly moving towards the Congress. 

Perennially facing water shortage, a large section of farmers in Amreli are also up in arms against the ruling party for its alleged failure to solve problems of non-payment of crop insurance and drinking and irrigation water shortage. Devoid of any industrial development barring in and around Pipavav port, unemployment is also an important factor in Amreli which has forced a large number of job-seekers to migrate. 

But on the minus side, Dhanani too is facing the anti-incumbency factor like the BJP sitting member with rising complains that he also had not bothered to take care of the local problems during his three tenures. 

Crucial contest 

• The Congress has fielded the current Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Paresh Dhanani, a firebrand Patidar leader, from Amreli against the sitting BJP member Naran Kachadiya, also a Patidar
• In 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress won five of the seven seats in Amreli and this is the Lok Sabha constituency which can stop the BJP from making clean sweep yet again
• Dissatisfaction among the farmers and the Hardik Patel-led reservation agitation are believed to have been the main contributory factors in the impressive show by the Congress