Gujarat Elections 2022: 1st phase polling today, high-stake three-cornered fight

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 30

Gujarat will vote on Thursday in the first phase of elections to 89 constituencies with the ruling BJP making a bid at power for the seventh consecutive term. The BJP has held power in the state since 1995.

As many as 788 candidates are in the fray for segments across 19 districts of South Gujarat, Kutch and Saurashtra regions. While the BJP must defend 48 segments of the 89 it had won in the 2017 elections and improve its tally to garner a “historic mandate” which Union Home Minister Amit Shah has claimed, the Congress needs to retain 40 of the 89 seats it had bagged in the previous poll to stay in the fight. Of the BJP’s 19 rebel candidates, nine are contesting tomorrow. The party dropped 42 of its sitting MLAs this time. The Congress too is acutely conscious of the importance of Thursday’s vote. “We won 40 seats out of 89. That was more than half our total tally of 77 seats in 2017,” a Congress leader said.

Of the 89 segments polling tomorrow, 54 are located in Kutch and Saurashtra where the Congress had outperformed the BJP bagging 30, up from 16 in 2012. Correspondingly, the BJP which had 35 of Saurashtra-Kutch region’s 54 seats in 2012 dropped to 23 in 2017. Even in South Gujarat, the Congress had gained over 2012 winning 10 seats as against six previously while the BJP’s performance dipped from 28 to 25 seats.

BJP strategists described tomorrow’s phase as key to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s desire to break the party’s 2002 record of victory in 127 seats out of 182. While the BJP would be fighting tomorrow to sustain its air of invincibility, the Congress will contest for electoral relevance having been reduced to Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in power on its own.

AAP’s performance in Gujarat would determine the level of popularity of its convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who personally led the campaign for the party. It would be a reflection of sorts on AAP’s performance in Punjab, which it had swept earlier this year.

Top guns in fray

Gujarat MoS (Home) Harsh Sanghvi, AAP’s CM face Isudan Gadhvi, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja, BJP strongman and five-time MLA Parshottam Solanki, seven-time MLA Chhotu Vasava.

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