Congress faced an outrage from the newly formed friend PAAS after the party released its first list of candidate for the first phase of the assembly elections in Gujarat. Only hours after the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) and the Congress came to an agreement on the reservation options offered by the party, the PAAS members came on to the roads to protest against the distribution of tickets.
Though the Congress said that during the meeting there was no discussion on regarding the seat sharing with the PAAS, however, the other claims that 7-8 seats were finalized that would be given to the PAAS members.
The support of the Patidars is very crucial for the Congress at this point of time and definitely, the party will not want to take any such step that would make the Ptidars unhappy and the community leader Hardik Patel might think twice before extending their support to the party.
In order to appease the unhappy Patidars, Congress replaced four candidates on the list announced on Sunday with four new nominees in the second list. The party on Monday night released its second list of 13 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly polls.
As per the changes made to make way for the Patidars, Bhikhabhai Joshi replaces Amit Thummar in Junagadh, Jaish Patel replaces Kiran Thakor in Bharuch, Ashok Jirawala will contest from Kamrej in place of Nilesh Kumbani and Dhirubhai Gajera is the new candidate for the Varachha Road seat in place of Prafulbhai C Togadiya.
Other than the PAAS members, the list also named 20 other Patidar were also given the ticket. In the previous list released by the Congress on Sunday night, two PAAS members were given the ticket and now after alterations, 4 more have made it to the list, making the total number of PAAS members to six.
Though Hardik Patel was not physically present in the protest against the Congress, but the Patidar leader took on to Twitter without naming the Congress, said that the promises made should be remembered. He also asked his community members to remain united at least out of respect for Patel ‘martyrs’.
According to the sources, the PAAS had pressed hard for the inclusion of Gajera, who has been supporting the quota stir. However, the party despite the request of the PAAS gave the ticket to Praful ‘Pappan’ Togadia, nephew of VHP leader Pravin Togadia, who has a long association with Congress and this was the main reason to trigger the outburst of the PAAS members.
Finally wanting to play safe and not taking any step that might lose the confidence of the Patidars, Congress agreed to make changes in the issued list. The Party though dropped down another PAAS leader, Amit Thummar, who was earlier given the ticket from Junagadh, to be replaced by Bhikhabhai Joshi.
Gajra, for whom the PAAS members were pressing hard had contested the poll in 2007 as an independent candidate but failed to get the victory. He later contested as a Congress candidate in 2012. He COnfirmed that he wished to fight the elections saying that “I can win from any seat including Katargam and Varaccha. I have heard that the party is revising its list to include my name.”
Another Surat PAAS convener Dharmik Malviya, who was indulged in clashes with Congress on Sunday night expressed that “Dhirubhai is the best candidate for the Varachha seat as he has a huge following. So we wanted the Congress to replace Togadia with him.”
Malviya in his statement to the press, also said that “Both Gajera and Jirawala were continuously supporting our quota movement as they also have a huge public support in the respective areas.”
The Patidars seems to be getting it there way by aggression or peaceful talks, but the fact that the community under the leadership of Hardik Patel is clearly been seen as the game changer cannot be denied. These elections in Gujarat are being seen as one of the most crucial polls before the Lok Sabha elections due in 2019.
As Gujarat is known as the fort of BJP and if Congress happens to win the assembly elections in Gujarat, it will be a major blow to the ruling BJP both at the Centre and at the State. The results of this poll will also show that in which direction the wind is blowing and how effective s the Modi wave even today.
Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on 9 and 14 Dec and the results will be announced on 18 Dec along with the results of Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections that took place on 9 Nov.