Revision as of 20:27, 9 December 2015

2014: the victorious candidates

Gujarat

2009, 2014

Home state bids goodbye to Modi with 100% wave

Ahmedabad:

TEAM TOI

The Times of India May 17 2014

Gujarat 2014

It's A Clean Sweep For BJP In Saffron Belt

With the ‘Gujarati-for-PM’ being the slogan of the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign in Gujarat, Narendra Modi’s home state given a resounding 100% mandate in his favour. The message was unambiguous: Modi should now replicate the success of the ‘Gujarat model’ on the wider canvas of India.

The BJP swept all 26 seats, demolishing some of the last-standing Congres bastions such as Anand, Bardoli and Kheda, which were represented by Union ministers Bharatsinh Solanki, Tushar Chaudhary and Dinsha Patel respectively. Shankersinh Vaghela, leader of opposition in the Gujarat assembly, was another major loser (from Sabarkantha).

The Congres had won 11 seats from the state in 2009.

The BJP bettered its previous best of 20 seats in 1999 to achieve an unprecedented clean sweep. Modi seemed to have Gujarat completely un

der his spell. The BJP garnered a record vote share of 59.1% (up from 46.38% in 2009), while the Congres's share went down to 32.9% (from 43.38% in 2009). The total polling stood at 63% (up from 47.90% in 2009).

No other political party could make a dent in the saffron stronghold. AAP polled only 1.2% votes — less than the number of people who opted for NOTA (1.8%) here.

BJP’s Muslim candidates lose

The Times of India, December 3, 2015

Most Muslim candidates of BJP lost in Guj local polls, Una only saving grace

 The ruling BJP's experiment with `sadbhavana', propounded by the then chief minister Narendra Modi in the local body elections has failed, except in Una municipality in coastal Saurastra. Here, all 10 candidates from the Muslim community won seats for the BJP, which had a landslide victory in Una municipality , winning 35 seats of 36. Of the nearly 500 Muslim BJP candidates fielded in these elections, the number elected is in two digits. Saurashtra is the only region where civic bodies showed some `sadbhavana' where the minority community elected saffron Muslim candidates. Apart from 10 Muslim councillors in Una municipality, one Muslim candidate, Sufiya Zaheed Dal, secured a corporator's seat for the party in the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC).During the last civic elections in Rajkot, Bibben Sama won on a BJP ticket.

In Ahmedabad, the minority community and other communities remained indifferent to BJP's Muslim candidates. All four Muslim candidates fielded in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) have lost in three different constituencies where Muslim voters are in overwhelming numbers -Jamalpur, Behrampura and Maktampura, which falls in the city's largest Muslim ghetto of Juhapura.

2015

Local bodies’ elections

The Times of India, Dec 03 2015

Cong posts big win in Guj panchayat elections

BJP suffered its worst loss in local body elections in Gujarat in over a decade as Congress regained lost ground, especially in rural areas, in what it called a “stepping stone“ for the 2017 state polls. A clear divide was visible as BJP fared much better in the cities and towns, giving some consolation to CM Anandiben Patel. While BJP retained all six municipal corporations, Congress wrested 23 of 31 district panchayats and 113 of 193 taluka panchayats. BJP continued to hold on to nagarpalikas, or town councils, winning 42 of 56 municipalities. Apart from agitating Patidars, who gave the “defeat BJP“ call, other factors including anti-incumbency and anger over lack of irrigation water and minimum support prices added to the woes of a rudderless party machinery which missed the charisma of PM Modi and the strategising of Amit Shah. Patidars dealt a blow to BJP bastions in Saurashtra and north Gujarat.

Wins in all major cities saved BJP the blushes, but rural Gujarat has given an early wake-up call to the party which never lost an election during Modi's stint as CM from 2001 to 2014. BJP went into the local body elections as a reluctant contestant and was forced to hold the polls after a Supreme Court rap.

The results are an indicator of the changing political tide ahead of the 2017 assembly polls and Congress would be pleased with its performance after remaining out of power for almost two decades. Rough statistics showed Congress had polled 52% votes in the elections, as against BJP's 44%. This is a huge swing from the 59.1% polled by BJP in the May 2014 elections when it won all 26 seats and the steady decline in the BJP's fortunes in post-Modi Gujarat.

“Today's results are a stepping stone for a Con gress victory in 2017. Their ( BJP government) anti-people policies have taken a toll on people,“ Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said in a statement.

Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel on Wednesday said BJP will have to analyse the reasons for its poor performance in the local body polls in the rural areas of the state.

“Though we have done well in municipal corporations and municipalities, it is also a fact that the results in district and taluka panchayat bodies are not up to the expectations,“ Patel admitted while addressing the party workers outside BJP office in Khanpur.

“We have been doing several developmental works across Gujarat. We have also undertaken an exercise to strengthen the party organisa tion. Still we have to now analyse what went wrong. We will find out and address these prob lems,“ she said.