Lok Sabha elections 2019: Rural Gujarat holds key to fortunes of BJP, Congress
AHMEDABAD: Rural Gujarat holds the key to the fortunes of the BJP and the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won all 26 seats in Gujarat in 2014, but growing farm distress, failure to get crop insurance and water crisis may tilt the mandate in favour of Congress in some rural and tribal seats.
The 15 rural seats in the state are divided across north, south, central and Saurashtra regions. Going by the 2017 Assembly election results, the Congress gained in rural areas and got more votes than the BJP in Assembly segments falling under seven Lok Sabha constituencies. It narrowed the margin in rest eight rural seats compared to 2014.
The BJP’s performance in the Assembly elections made the party drop sitting MPs in rural constituencies —Anand, Patan, Surendranagar, Banaskantha, Panchmahal, Chhota Udaipur and Porbandar. The results also made PM Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah held a series of public meetings in the rural belt.
The Congress, which gained support in the rural and tribal belt, is looking forward to giving the BJP a tough fight in all the 15 constituencies and is expecting to win a majority of these. The party is also banking upon the Patel community in rural areas that supported it in 2017 after the 2015 Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti protests led by Hardik Patel.
However, there has been a split in the Patidar community and a significant section has seemingly stopped supporting Hardik after the central government announced a quota for upper caste poor and his switch to the Congress.
In 2017, Alpesh Thakor and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani had also rallied behind the Congress. Two years later, Mevani has gone his own way while Thakor has left the party. Yet, Congress is upbeat.
“Farmers and tribals are unhappy with the BJP government. The Assembly election reflected the anger among the farming community… we are expecting the trend to continue in the Lok Sabha polls,” said Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.
The four tribal seats of Valsad, Chhota Udaipur, Dahoud and Bardoli are expected to see a triangular contest, with MLA Chotubhai Vasava’s Bharatiya Tribal Party in the fray and getting support over land acquisition and displacement of tribals in the Narmada belt.
“We are fighting for the rights of the tribal people... the two parties haven’t addressed them,” said Vasava.