AHMEDABAD: Despite its stellar victory in the local body elections in Gujarat a few months ago, the ruling BJP in the state is working hard to achieve more than 152 seats in the 182-seat Assembly in the next election.
The tenure of Gujarat Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end in February 2023. The previous Assembly elections were held in December 2017.
In the civic polls, the saffron party had almost obliterated the Congress by winning six municipal corporations, 75 out of 81 municipalities, 31 district panchayats and 196 out of 231 taluka panchayats.
However, when it suffered a big jolt in West Bengal, the saffron seems to have realised that only through hard work it can achieve another big consecutive poll victory in the west Indian state.
Another reason for the ruling party striving to achieve victory could be its poor performance during the Covid period.
Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil has been aggressively conducting public programmes for the last two months. Also, several coordination meetings are being held at the BJP’s state headquarters, Kamalam.
State ministers are also trying to resolve the issues of their ministries as quickly as possible. All these suggest that the party wants a record-breaking victory in the Assembly polls at any cost.
According to BJP spokesperson Yagnesh Dave, in the last two months Patil hosted 41 Sneh Milan (public meetings) and over 20 internal meetings.
Issues like the state’s ineffective handling of the Covid pandemic, unemployment, farmers’ issues and anti-incumbency are major challenges for the party and hence, the leadership has ordered ministers to “make people feel good”.
The party has also passed a message that the government has shunted out all ministers who were not doing good work.
BJP’s other concern is that its lead in almost every seat has been steadily declining since 1985. According to a report, the average lead margin in the 1985 election was 23.70 per cent, which dropped to 10.72 per cent in 2012.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also on a visit of the state. On Saturday he laid foundation stone of Maa Umiya Mandir campus in Ahmedabad.
This is the temple of the tutelary deity of Kadva Patidar caste, which is dominant in Gujarat. Shah laying foundation stone of the temple points to forthcoming polls, feel analysts.
According to political analyst Dilip Patel, BJP’s image has deteriorated due to the poor handling of the pandemic and the party is now trying to improve its image.
“The pace with which the BJP is currently organising programmes is an indirect indication that it wants to win more seats. Since the party faces no serious opposition in the state, efforts are directed towards bagging more seats in the polls,” he said.