Lok Sabha elections 2009:Gujarat Poll Bytes(6)

It’s election time again, and again Congress office has been ransacked

It’s election time again, and again Gujarat Congress headquarter has been stormed. On Monday evening, around 5,000 supporters of ex Congress MLA Govabhai Rabari from Rabari and Maldhari community flocked in mainly from Banaskantha, to oppose the candidature of Danta MLA Mukesh Gadhvi from the Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat. Protesters claimed that their community forms 14% of Gujarat’s electorate. Protesters stormed the office, ransacked the interior and broke the glasses. Gujarat Congress president Siddharth Patel said ” There are 200 communities in Gujarat and only 26 seats. BJP has not given a single ticket to candidate from Maldhari community. Why we are only blamed?”

It should be noted that be it a civic election or an assembly election, the Congress head quarter faces damages at least once during the ticket distribution season.

‘Join BJP’ movement continues…

Latest who joined the BJP is Ghanshyam Patel. Patel has good influence in rural Vadodara areas. He was seeking a Congress ticket for Vadodara seat but the party allotted it to Satyajeet Gaekwad who was defeated by the BJP twice in previous elections by thin margin. On Monday, fleet of luxury buses arrived at BJP office in Ahmedabad. The buses led by Ghanshyambhai Patel and KC Patel both the Congress leaders from Vadodara, were full of some 500 Congress workers including sarpanchs of some 40 villages of rural Vadodara areas. All the workers joined the BJP in presence of Gujarat BJP president Purushottam Rupala. Rupala proudly announced that the General Secretory of the Vadodara district Congress was also joining BJP.

BJP has good support in Vadodara’s urban areas but lacks similar support in rural Vadodara. Now the party hopes to do well in rural Vadodara areas also, thanks to induction of around 1000 Congress workers from rural Vadodara areas into the party.

In another development, Bharatiya Navshakti Party’s Gujarat unit president Dinesh Tadvi also has joined the BJP. Bharatiya Navshakti Party was formed by Mohan Delkar, MP from Dadra Nagar Haveli who recently joined the Congress party. Tadvi would help BJP to win votes in tribal areas including areas under Valsad Lok Sabha constituency where Navshakti party had some influence.

‘Leave BJP’ movement stalled

After BJP allotted Patan Lok Sabha seat to sitting Congress MLA Bhavsinh Rathod, ex-MLA Dilipsinh Thakor’s 11 supporters resigned from the party positions at local level. When Bhavsinh went to Varna mata mandir soon after being declared as a candidate, Dilipsinh was camping at his farm-house surrounded by his supporters. Dilipsinh openly expressed his anger against the decision of the party on TV channel cameras too. Dilipsinh is BJP’s senior leader from Thakor community who was made minister by Modi when he was MLA. In 2007 assembly elections, he was defeated by Bhavsinh. When ‘jobless’ Dilipsinh was eying to fight Lok Sabha elections this time, Bhavsinh jumped into the BJP and grabbed the ticket from the party.

Soon after resignations of 11 local BJP leaders in Harij assembly area supporting Dilipsinh against Bhavsinh, the BJP sent a team of senior leaders for damage control. The team that included minister Jaynarayan Vyas and ex-minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama assured Dilipsinh a party ticket for Harij assembly seat in coming by-election. Bhavsinh has already resigned from Harij seat as he is contesting Lok Sabha. Dilipsinh has been assured that he would regain his assembly seat and would also perhaps become minister after being elected as Modi wants Thakor minister in his team.

So, after this meeting, Dilipsinh has understood, how Bhavsinh’s victory is important for him. It’s simple: (1)Bhavsinh to Lok Sabha with Dilipsinh’s support, (2) Dilipsinh to assembly on Bhavsinh’s vacated seat with Bhavsinh’s support.

March 27th rally to charge BJP cadres

Due to heat, recession, delimitation, lacking of any major issue, newly discovered candidates or whatever reason, excitement of the elections is completely absent in Gujarat, even after most of the candidates are already announced by two major parties.

To charge up the cadres and kick start the campaign, BJP is going to organize an election rally in Ahmedabad on March 27th. Let’s see what happens. I must add here that 27 March is Gudi Padwa.

Seven Congress seats where BJP is plus plus

If you can remember, we telecast state BJP spokes person Vijay Rupani’s press conference on DeshGujarat some time back. Rupani had said that the BJP is ahead on 21 seats according to new delimitation. The BJP has already 14 seats in Gujarat. Another seven seats in which the BJP enjoys superiority as per the assembly election 2007 voting figures are Banaskantha(plus 140160 votes), Jamnagar(plus 30497 votes), Amreli(plus 86650 votes), Valsad(plus 62804 votes), Mehsana(plus 77177 votes) and Kapadvanj(plus 42545 votes). Whether one and half year old assembly election’s voting figures can be a yardstick to assume Lok Sabha possibilities? Well, this remains a question because issues, voting percentage, season everything differs.

Advani to file nomination on 6th of April

BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani will file nomination form for his candidature from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat on 6th April. 6 April is BJP’s birthday. Most of the candidates are expected to file nomination form on this day. Just to remind you, here is a schedule of Lok Sabha election 2009 for Gujarat.

Announcement and Issue of Press Note 2-March-2009(Monday)
Issue of Notification 2-April-2009(Thursday)
Last date for filling nominations 9-April-2009(Thursday)
Scrutiny of nominations 10-April-2009(Friday)
Last date for withdrawal of candidature 13-April-2009(Monday)
Date of Poll 30-April-2009(Thursday)
Counting of Votes on 16-May-2009(Saturday)

Quote time

Arun Jaitley was in Ahmedabad to address the media workshop organized by the Gujarat BJP. Reacting on central Home Minister P.Chidambaram’s comments attacking Modi and Jaitley on the IPL Cricket issue, Arun Jaitley said, “Chidambaram has two-and-a-half-months left and he should concentrate on his job. When he was Finance Minister, out investments were not safe. Now that he is Home Minister, we are not safe.” Watch this in video, Click here.