BJP, Congress Pull Up Sleeves In Gujarat

After BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal's Surat win, Gujarat will see 25 Lok Sabha seats go to polls today with 266 candidates in the fray.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won all 26 seats in the previous two Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019, is aiming to repeat the success story in Gujarat this time as well.

The Congress, which has seen an early setback in the Surat constituency with the BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal being declared a winner ahead of the election, is trying to match up.

For the BJP, in the last week of campaigning, it was mostly a Modi-Shah show in terms of large rallies and public meetings in Gujarat, their home state.

Narendra D Modi addressed two election meetings in Deesa (Banaskantha) and Himmatnagar (Sabarkantha) on May 1 and four in Anand, Surendranagar, Junagadh and Jamnagar on May 2.

Amit A Shah, who's fighting for re-election from the Gandhinagar seat, addressed a public meeting in Naroda, Ahmedabad,.

The Congress, too, lined up its strongest crowd pullers. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee, addressed a rally on May 3 in Lakheni, Banaskantha.

Rajkot, part of the Saurashtra region, witnessed protests against the BJP after controversial remarks on Rajputs by its candidate Parshottam Rupala.

Of the two Union ministers whose Rajya Sabha tenures ended recently, Mansukh Mandaviya will contest from Porbandar and Rupala from Rajkot.

Even as the BJP is banking on Brand Modi for a hat-trick in Gujarat to win all 26 seats, of which Surat is already in its pocket, social issues around Kshatriyas/Rajputs are dominating in some constituencies, especially in the Saurashtra region.

But BJP functionaries are putting up a brave front, dismissing any concern at all, while arguing that at the ground level, the Congress has gone missing.

Apart from lining up a star cast for the last leg of campaigning in the state, BJP rallies focused on three things -- third sweep by the party in the state, projecting Viksit Bharat goals, and placing on record the achievements of the last 10 years, while taking on the Congress wherever possible, a source pointed out.

The Congress, on the other hand, has looked at Rajput protests as an opportunity to make some inroads into the state.

But sources in the Congress say that the biggest success story in this election season is that "the Congress is speaking and the BJP is reacting".

The sources also claim that the Congress is giving a fight to the BJP in Gujarat in more than 10 seats.

After BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal's Surat win, Gujarat will see 25 Lok Sabha seats go to polls on May 7 with 266 candidates in the fray.

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Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com