Gandhinagar: One of the issues opposition Congress party is banking upon to do better in Gujarat elections is GST.

Congress is hoping to gain through discontent related to Goods and Services Tax(GST) among traders.

Though traders are not against GST as they know it is in many countries and sooner or later it was to come to India as well, they are not happy the way government has implemented it.

Congress is eyeing to gain from this situation. In latest efforts, Congress has decided to field former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram.

While Chidambaram is expected to interact with traders in Rajkot, the heart place of Saurashtra region, Manmohan Singh is expected to interact with business community in Ahmedabad and Surat.

Had a very good meeting with former PM Dr #ManMohanSingh ji, discussed #GujaratElections and invited him to campaign in #Gujarat… pic.twitter.com/ecK9etoIKV

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) October 27, 2017

Both leaders will speak and interact mostly about demonetization and GST topics. They will also speak about taxes, cess and other economic issues.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who is also the incharge of BJP for Gujarat elections has visited the State recently for more than once, but the party has limited his presence to State party headquarters Kamalam. The party has not fielded him to interact with the public so far as Jaitley’s unpopularity among traders and other segments is very high at this time following GST implementation related issues.

As a course correction, the BJP government in the Centre has announced series of relief measures for GST payers.

In his public meeting in Gujarat, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently said that all decisions pertaining to GST were taken by a GST council in which Congress ruled states were also the members.

It must be noted here that Gujarat is largely a business state. Right-thinking Gujaratis were hoping for ease of business under BJP government. However, there is large perception that taxes, cess and finally GST altogether made business atmosphere adverse.

Traders, not so happy with the government still may not for Congress, as they don’t consider it as a better option.

DeshGujarat