Cong Ready for Early Polls in Gujarat, to Decide Seats by Year End

Modi’s frequent visits illustrate the political urgency BJP faces in his home turf of Gujarat, writes Sharad Gupta.

Despite Assembly elections being more than a year away in Gujarat, political activities have suddenly picked up pace in the state. Congress has decided to finalise tickets for all the constituencies by December.

The reason for the hurry is not too unclear. BJP is contemplating preponing the elections to February-March to coincide with Assembly polls in Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The Quint had first carried the story on 17 October.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been visiting Gujarat at least once every month since August. Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal addressed a rally in Surat last week. And now, state Congress president Bharat Sinh Solanki is working overtime to ensure all Assembly tickets are finalised by December.

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Congress Hopeful of a Comeback

Gurudas Kamat, Central Observer for Gujarat Congress, confirmed the developments. Asked whether Gujarat elections are being preponed, Kamat's direct reply was, "Unfortunately yes!". He also went on to add that the Congress state machinery has been galvanised into action to prepare for the eventuality.

Congress leaders feel that with public anger against the BJP government at an all-time high in the last 22 years, and AAP still trying to get a foothold in the state, they stand a fair chance of bouncing back to power. Any complacency may cost them a lot.

Modi’s Visits Indicates Preponement of Polls

First indications of the move came with Prime Minister Modi's frequent visits to his home state. First he visited North Gujarat in August to pay tributes to his spiritual guru Pramukh Swami.

A large chunk of the Patidars are known to be followers of the Swami. The event had political overtones, as it was seen as an attempt to placate the Patidars, angry with the BJP for quite some time due to non-acceptance of their demand for reservation in jobs.

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Political Urgency Evident

Modi rushed to Gujarat again within a fortnight, this time to address a rally at Jamnagar in Saurashtra — the epicentre of the Patidar movement. He delivered his speech in Gujarati — for the first time in the past two-and-a-half years since he left Gujarat for New Delhi. This was also seen as a move to assuage the hurt Patidar agitators as 16 of them had been killed in police firing last year.

He visited the state again in September — this time South Gujarat — to distribute equipment and help-kits to handicapped tribal students in Navsari. Modi is expected in Gujarat again on 22 October on the pretext of inaugurating an airport in Vadodara.

Four visits in three months hold significance because he hardly visited the state half a dozen times during the past two years preceding August. He has also visited all four corners of the state — North, South, Saurashtra and Central Gujarat. This not only signifies political urgency to prepare ground for an early poll, but also a clear dearth of leadership.

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Gujarat to Pave Way for ‘One Nation, One Poll’?

The state has seen three chief ministers during the past two-and-a-half years — Modi, Anandiben Patel and Vijay Rupani. None except Modi has been effective as a chief minister.

After Patel was ousted on 5 August and Rupani was inducted as CM, he too is fast losing political capital. He hasn't done anything to placate either the Patidars or the Dalits — both have, of late, been on the warpath against the state government.

Clearly, BJP doesn't have a star campaigner other than Modi in Gujarat and he has already slipped easily into the role.

The central in-charge of BJP for Gujarat, Dr Dinesh Sharma though denies that state elections will be held before schedule.

They are slated to be held in November next year. There is no move to hold them before that.

Dinesh Sharma, Gujarat BJP in-charge

Reminded of Prime Minister's announcement of "One Nation, One Poll" and whether the slogan will start getting implemented from his home state, he replied in the negative.

But, at the same time, BJP legislators are asserting that elections would be held alongside Punjab and Goa. "Gujarat is going to have Panchayat elections in December-January. They can be easily postponed by a couple of months and held in February, along with Assembly polls", says Janak Patel, a BJP legislator from Surat.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist. He can be reached at @sharadgupta1.)

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