'K factor' fails to make a mark, Keshubhai GPP wins just 2 seats

Former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who floated his new party just two months before the Assembly elections, failed to cross even the single digit figure and ended up with two seats in his bag. Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) was floated with the intention of upsetting Modi’s dream run for the third consecutive time.

Touted as the ‘K factor’ in Saurashtra, it could manage only two from this region and failed to register in other regions.

All through his campaign, Patel had been insisting that it was time for the state to see a ‘parivartan’ or change. His own community, the dominant Leuva Patel, which accounts for 18 % votes, too did not vote for him enmasse.

Patel’s second in command, Gordhan Zadaphia, has also lost in Gondal, which has come as a setback to Patel. Though party leaders remained unavailable for comment, officials said Patel was, indeed, hopeful of causing more damage to Modi, especially in the Saurashtra region.

Big dent

Patel, who has  been moving mostly in the Patel-dominated areas of Saurashtra and South Gujarat, was hoping to dent heavily in these regions, particularly the BJP. But he ended up damaging the vote share of the Congress. `

`Though a detailed analysis of the results are still to be done, the initial count shows that our party has done more damage to the Congress than the BJP,’’ said a GPP leader.   The party’s main drawback was that it could barely find fresh faces and candidates who could pose a challenge to the BJP candidates.

“The party candidates were either those who had left the BJP or were disgruntled members of the BJP,’’ said the leader.

He said that the GPP was floated with the idea of presenting an alternative to the people of Gujarat but it failed to even make a mark for itself, in its very first attempt.

“There was nothing new to offer and the young voters who constituted a quarter of the population, could not affiliate with either Keshubhai or his party,’’ said the leader.

He admitted that most were seeing him as a spent force who could not promise much or convince the voters to vote in their favour.