Assembly polls: After Himachal, BJP firefights rebellion in Gujarat

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, November 24

After Himachal Pradesh, the BJP is facing a similar problem in its stronghold Gujarat—fighting rebellion on at least 10 per cent of the seats in the 182-member Assembly.

The ruling party has suspended 19 rebels, seven after filing of the nomination papers for the first phase and the remaining 12 after the second phase nominations after attempts to pacify and convince them otherwise failed.

Suspended leaders who have filed nominations against BJP’s official candidates include ex-MLAs and local strongmen. While majority are contesting as Independents, three have been fielded by rival Congress and one also by the new entrant AAP.

Interestingly, while some of those fighting as Independents still vouch allegiance to the BJP, others believe they can form a pressure group in case of a hung Assembly, something that rebels in Himachal Pradesh are also hoping for. Some of them are those who won their first elections as Independent candidates.

For example Kuldeepsinh Raulji, a director of the Baroda Dairy and former milk union leader. An influential leader, Raulji first won as an Independent candidate in 2009.

Rebels include six-term BJP MLA from Waghodia Madhu Shrivastav who was replaced by the party’s Vadodara district president Ashwin Patel, is among the around 40 MLAs denied tickets by the BJP in the upcoming elections.

Party leaders, who dismiss the possibility of the rebels denting the prospects of official candidates, say “their numbers are a sign of BJP’s popularity. There will always be a fight for tickets of a party like the BJP which is definitely forming the government”.

“In the BJP, the organisation, cadres, people and their aspirations are more important than the candidate. We are focusing on our official candidate. There may be some loss of votes but our official candidates will win,” they said.

Whether the benefit of rebels splitting BJP votes is cashed by the Congress or AAP remains to be seen but in some cases rebels are openly expressing their angst against the central leadership, especially the BJP giving tickets to almost all the MLAs who crossed over from Congress at the cost of their own candidates. “Rather than‘Congress mukt’, Gujarat is now ‘Congress-yukt’,” they say.