BJP’s mantra for success is ‘Beat the heat’

–In last Lok Sabha elections(2004), Gujarat had second lowest voting after J&K. The overconfident BJP in Gujarat had lost 7 seats from its earlier tally of 21 and managed to win only 14 seats.

Apart from marriages and infighting, one of the main reasons for such poor show was lower percentage of voting. At a little over 45 per cent, the turnout of voters on April 20, 2004 when the state went to polls in the first phase was the second lowest in Gujarat’s history of general elections.

In the political circles of Gujarat, it is believed that whenever the turnout of voters is well, BJP gains. Lower the turnout, major are the chances of Congress winning more seats.

So, if the BJP wants to get more than 14 seats in Gujarat, the party would have to work hard to pull out the people from their comfort zones to make sure that they reach polling stations to vote. Thus mobilization of party’s youth wing would become very important factor.

This issue is really very important because the election date is 30th April which is predictably one of the hottest days in summer. So, the BJP will have to beat the heat to ensure 14+ success. In year 2004, the Lok Sabha elections were held on 20th of April.

In politics, nuisance value is a value

–On Friday, the Nationalist Congress Party(NCP)’s Gujarat unit president Jayant Patel in a television interview said that the NCP would contest from all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. Jayant Patel also said that he himself would contest from the Anand seat.

It should be noted that in Gujarat, the NCP has demanded 7 seats from the Congress under proposed election alliance. However, without any discussion with the NCP, Congress declared candidates on some of the seats that NCP had demanded under proposed alliance. According to the sources, the Congress is ready to allot only two seats to the NCP. For Congress, these two seats are anyway sparable because they are strong holds of the BJP.

After watching the NCP leader’s interview, DeshGujarat called him over a phone and asked whether this was NCP’s final decision or the talks were still on with the Congress? Jayant Patel immediately replied that the talks were on. DeshGujarat asked him about what he had said in the TV interview. Patel replied that he had given a statement on reporter’s demand. DeshGujarat further inquired through the sources and came to know that it was not reporter’s demand. Actually Mr. Jayant Patel had said this himself to put the pressure on the Congress party as seat sharing talks are on and Congress is somewhat not likely to allot more than two sparable seats.

It is well known fact that the NCP’s value in Gujarat’s politics is nothing but what it should be called a nuisance value. The business of the NCP is very simple: demand maximum seat sharing to get least amount of winnable seat, or fight the election on maximum seats to get 100% defeat and to spoil Congress’ vote share. The Congress party succumbed to NCP’s black mailing during Gujarat assembly elections in 2007 and formed an alliance to allot the NCP some winnable seats.

Let’s see, what happens in Lok Sabha elections this time. I firmly believe that for stable and able Gujarat, there should not be a third strong political force here, but thanks to shortsightedness of the Congress party that we will have it.

Constituency gone, but Ratilal doesn’t want to go!

–When asked about reports of Dhandhuka MP Ratilal Varma’s reservations on Modi’s no-repeat theory published in media, Gujarat BJP president PuruShottam Rupala said, “individuals can have their own opinions and views, but the party will continue to follow it’s strategy.”

On Friday evening in a press conference, journalists asked Rupala this question in connection with Ratilal Varma’s conversation with the media day before in which he had said, “Bringing in all new faces in the name of including youth will not get the party the desired results in the elections. Only Narendra Modi thinks on such lines, people sitting in Delhi think differently.”

Interestingly Varma’s Dhadhuka seat has ceased to exist after new delimitation, but he wants to contest from the newly created Ahmedabad(west) seat, reserved for SC. Varma in an interview had further said, “I have a large support base of two lakh deprived section voters. I have conveyed my feelings to the leaders here and also in Delhi that if I am not fielded, the BJP will lose the seat. The Delhi parliamentary committee wants me, but the Gujarat leaders are opposed to my candidature. Modi should not give tickets to his favorites. Those who have been loyal and worked to build the party’s base in the state should not be ignored. Leaders like Dilip Sanghani and Jaisinh Chauhan lost the Lok Sabha polls(in 2004) but were fielded in assembly elections and made ministers. I joined the party when it had no base among the backwards. Modi should not deny tickets to those who have worked for the party for long.”

Narendra Modi’s assembly constituency Maninagar is also a part of the Ahmedabad-West seat.

Delay is our strategy, says Rupala

–Finally on Friday evening, Purushottam Rupala said that he would go to Delhi on 17th to finalize the Gujarat BJP candidates. When journalists asked the reason of delay in announcing the candidates, Rupala said, “everything is going on according to Party’s strategy”.