The Congress is elated that the elections in Gujarat this time did not appear to have been hijacked by emotive issues and that real concerns more or less dominated the campaign, restricting the undue advantages that accrue to the BJP.
Two former Gujarat Congress presidents, Bharatsinh Solanki and Arjun Modhwadia, on Saturday said at a media conference that the BJP had failed to polarise voters on religious lines and the electoral discourse revolved around real issues despite desperate attempts to whip up passions. Both of them said Narendra Modi’s bid to hijack the elections by staking his personal reputation had also failed this time.
The Congress leaders expressed deep gratitude to the voters for sticking to issues like prices, unemployment, corruption and the BJP’s misgovernance. The Congress has constantly accused the BJP, particularly after Modi’s arrival in 2002, of winning by creating communal tension. In 2017, the party felt Modi turned the election at the last minute by hyping up Mani Shakar Aiyer’s “neech” remark and triggering a sympathy factor by telling the people that Gujarat’s son had been insulted.
Modi tried the trick this time too but does not appear to have had the same inpact. Congress leaders believe the people also now understand the game and realise that the context of Kharge’s remark didn’t justify the charge of personal attack.
Saturday was the last day of campaigning before the second and final phase of voting on Monday. The Congress expressing satisfaction suggests it expects the true strengths of the two rival parties will be reflected in the poll result. The Congress believes that the initial apprehension of the AAP splitting the anti-incumbency votes had proved wrong because it cut both ways. Some Congress leaders claim the AAP would damage the BJP more as the fledgling unit had gained strength mainly in urban areas.
The BJP won 15 of the 16 seats in Surat in 2017 and the Congress thinks the AAP has sliced away a major chunk of ruling party votes in the region while its impact in rural areas is limited.
The mood in the Congress is in sharp contrast to the prediction of doom in pre-poll surveys, most of them pushing the party to the third place behind the AAP. Congress Gujarat in-charge Raghu Sharma said: “While the Congress’s Parivartan rallies attracted huge crowds, the BJP campaign was a saga of empty chairs. People didn’t come to hear even the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister spent most of his time in Gujarat over the last eight months but he couldn’t change the direction of the election.”
Sharma added: “ We reached out to 1.5 crore voters in our door-to-door campaign. We focused on issues like price rise, unemployment, drug trafficking, illicit liquor, paper leaks, the Morbi accident, and the people appreciated them.” Solanki said. “We thank the voters for sticking to issues.”
Modhwadia said: “Elections happened on communal polarisation of individual-centric campaigns for the last 25 years. But this election was held on issues. The BJP’s corruption and arrogance were the main issues apart from misgovernance.... No Prime Minister has ever done roadshows in Assembly elections. But Modi failed to change the election this time. The state government and the chief minister were not even mentioned in the campaign.”