In Gujarat, BJP banks on Modi, Congress freebies

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, November 17

With the last day of withdrawal of nominations for Phase-I of the Gujarat Assembly elections and filing papers for Phase-II getting over today, the battle lines are drawn for the 182-member House.

BJP defends ticket to daughter of riot convict

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Ahmedabad: Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil on Thursday defended the allotment of party ticket to Payal Kukrani, daughter of a convict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, for the next month’s Assembly election and said she was a party worker contesting the polls on merit. PTI

Ahead of the triangular contest, the ruling BJP is hoping to make a comeback on the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and his poll pitch of delivering a “double-engine” development and that the “vote for ‘kamal’ is a vote for him”.

That was the BJP’s strategy in the just-concluded Himachal Pradesh elections and other states where it was fighting the anti-incumbency factor. Gujarat being no different, the BJP is facing a massive anti-incumbency there as well. This explains the party’s decision to drop senior ministers and sitting legislators, opting for new faces.

The BJP is all set for a “carpet bombing”, with public meetings of central ministers and state leaders across 89 constituencies lined up for November 18, sources say.

While ruling party candidates are seeking votes in the PM’s name, the rival Congress is said to be running a “silent campaign” — a sharp contrast to the aggressive drive led by Rahul Gandhi in 2017 with the young force of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani. Since then, Thakor and Patel have quit the Congress like many other leaders in the past five years.

In the absence of central leaders from the election campaign, the Congress is focusing on local issues and “ignoring” PM Modi because experience shows that “nothing sticks on him”, observers say.

Gandhi, who has so far been concentrating on the “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, is expected to take a break and join the campaign in Gujarat around November 22. Improvising on its theory of ‘KHAM’ (Kshatriyas, OBCs, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims), the grand old party is working on ‘BADAM’ this time — OBCs, Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims—say experts. The BJP is also concentrating on the same sections of society minus the minority community.

“The Congress holds sway over farmers, tribals, Dalits, cattle-growers, dairy farmers and other marginalised communities,” they add.