Gujarat the state of BJP from 22 years, will be facing the assembly polls before 18 Dec this year and the fight to win the race is at its heights, with both BJP and Congress trying to pull each other down.
The Election Commission on Thursday announced that the dates for the assembly polls will be announced most probably by next week, however, this was assured that the elections will be held before 18 Dec. With only a few days left both the parties are trying hard to lure the voters to their side. However, according to the experts, BJP seems to be facing a hard time trying to fight the Congress, which is becoming popular and gaining the confidence of the people very quickly.
BJP may be reigning in the state from quite a long time but people are now getting impatient and a situation of anti-incumbency is rising against the government now. Also, the campaigning of Congress is getting successful rapidly on the social media as well as among the voter. The frequent visit and the dedication to win the seat this time of Rahul Gandhi has also left the BJP on shaky grounds.
In order to counterattack the Congress campaigning, BJP has decided to project Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath as the new Hindutva icon pan-India by the Sangh and BJP. Modi, who was till now being projected as the national face of BJP and on depending on whom the party was confident of winning the polls, is not very sure about it now.
The recent criticism that the party has faced due to the failure of Modi’s experiments of demonetisation and GST has sunk in the realisation that Modi’s face will not be enough to win the polls. During the 2014 elections, Modi had pitched in the planks of ‘vikas’ and ‘good governance’, but now with the economic growth going down the hill, the picture seems to something else. In such a situation the BJP has decided to preach in the possibility of using Hindutva as the party’s weapon. For this BJP has taken the decision of launching Yogi Adtyanathas the party face for campaigning.
Yogi had also joined BJP Party President Amit Shah in Kerela recently, demonstrating protest against the ruling CPI(M) government, accusing it of using murder politics, by killing the workers of BJP and RSS. Yogi will also be visiting the soon to be polls bound state Gujarat on a two-day tour beginning from Friday.
Yogi also likely to visit another poll-bound state in Himachal Pradesh, ahead of the assembly elections due on 9 Nov, this year. He will address gatherings in south Gujarat on Friday and Saturday as part of the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra. A senior BJP leader said that “Yogi Adityanath will visit Gujarat several times to the run-up to the election. He will be one of our star campaigners in the elections.”
Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today reached Valsad to join the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra. During his address, Yogi Adityanath hit out at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. Attacking him Adityanath said that the prince of Congress is trying to mislead the people by coming to Gujarat. He further added that the Congress has lost the battle, wherever Rahul went for campaigning and the same will happen in Gujarat also.
Trying to once again bring back the stronghold of the party, Adityanath during his address praised Gujarat saying that the state has given the country people like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Narendra Modi. Yogi said that Gujarat has made quite a difference in the last two decades. During Congress rule, the per capita income of the state was Rs 14,000, which has now gone up to Rs 100,000, this is the result of the foresight of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.
Throughout his address Yogi attacked Rahul and Congress, he said that it was the result of the foresight of Modi and not the Congress that Gujarat has got the project of bullet trains in its state. He further added that Modi has initiated the making of new India which will benefit everyone in the long run.
Yogi Adityanath, recalling the tenure of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, said that “under the leadership of Modiji, I have seen the development of Bhuj and Kutch.” Taking a jibe at the Congress leader, Yogi reminded the people that, when Gujarat was flooding, then PM Modi and Amit Shah came hereto help the people, but Rahul Gandhi did not come. Rahul Gandhi is the only person to make an election tour, he added.
Yogi Adityanath also attacked the ideology of the Congress during his address. Yogi Adityanath said, Congress is supporters of Ishrat Jahan. These people are the agents of destruction and they have insultedMahayma Gandhi, BJP’s aim is to free Congress from Gujarat. The Congress had given Bharat Ratna to people like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi but Sardar Patel was not considered worthy of it. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government came to rule, Sardar Patel was awarded the Bharat Ratna. In truth, he was entitled to Bharat Ratna before all of them, he added.
The Gujarat Gaurav Yatra was started by Sardar Patel’s hometown Karamdas on October 1 by BJP national president Amit Shah. The main purpose of this Yatra is to win back the traditional vote bank of the Patidars who are angry with the BJP in Gujarat. In addition, the BJP is focusing on the rural seats of the state through the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra. BJP has handed over the command of Gujarat Gaurav Yatra to Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who comes from Patidar Samaj of the state despite this, the Patidars have opposed Gujarat Gaurav Yatra in many places. Due to not being successful in their plans, the BJP is also concentrating on other ethnic equations, in which the pro-Hindu image of the party and support of the OBC community is important.
Left with no other option, the BJP has finally adopted its old formula of Hindutva. Gujarat is a state where the majority of the population is Hindu, around 89% of the population is Hindu and hence BJP’s last weapon may prove to be useful. Even the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has not left this stone unturned. In an attempt to clear the party’s image as an anti-Hindu, Rahul began his campaign in Gujarat by offering prayers at the Dwarkadhesh Temple and is also likely to visit many other temples during his four-phase campaigning of Gujarat.
The image of is of a staunch Hindu leader and its effect can clearly be seen in the decisions taken by the government in Uttar Pradesh. Projecting Yogi as the Hindutva icon and bringing him to campaign for BJP might be beneficial for the party. Another major reason of involving the ministers of Uttar Pradesh for the BJP campaigning in Gujarat is the population of Uttar Pradesh people in the state. A large number of people from Central and Eastern Uttar Pradesh live in Ahmedabad and Surat, two major industrial cities of the state.
Once a Gujarat was known as the fort of BJP but now the party is rapidly losing its grip in the state there is no excuse for accepting this. While BJP it trying everything to keep ruling in the state, Congress is also engaged in the process of ending its decades-old political exile in the state. Regardless of the outcome of the results, it is certain that Gujarat’s political agitation will prepare the background of the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and will play a vital role in deciding the direction of the country’s politics.