Unimpressive run in north Gujarat worries BJP

The BJP leadership still nurses the hope to break the Madhavsinh Solanki-led Congress’ record of winning 149 of Gujarat’s 182 Assembly seats

On Tuesday afternoon, BJP workers gathered in its makeshift party office in Vadgam constituency, in north Gujarat, went quiet when asked if the party could, in 2022, achieve the holy grail of Gujarat electoral politics.

Despite its six successive wins since 1995, the BJP leadership nurses the hope to break the Madhavsinh Solanki-led Congress’ record of winning 149 of Gujarat’s 182 Assembly seats.

Vadgam BJP workers hesitated because of their party’s underwhelming electoral record in north Gujarat. In 2017, of the region’s 32 seats across six districts, BJP won 14, mostly urban seats, and Congress 18.

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Vadgam, which its sitting legislator, Jignesh Mevani, has made famous across the country, is one of 32 Assembly constituencies of north Gujarat’s six districts. The same question, when posed to enthusiastic BJP workers in the region’s Gandhinagar South seat, which Mevani’s former comrade in arms Alpesh Thakor is contesting on the BJP ticket, was met with a resounding yes.

As one disembarks from Gandhinagar’s well-maintained thoroughfares into the region’s smaller towns, the ‘Gujarat model’ starts creaking, and the reason for the party’s diffidence is evident.

“If development is only building wider roads, bridges and flyovers, including where these are not needed, then indeed the region has developed,” says Mahendra Parmar, an articulate young Dalit auto rickshaw driver in Vadgam.

Others around him, whose families, like Parmar’s, do not own land, complain of bureaucratic corruption in accessing government welfare schemes.

Not far from the tea stall where Parmar and friends await passengers, Veerjibhai Chaudhary, a farmer, reasons that BJP under Modi is indispensable since it has ensured law and order.

“But water is scarce. The water table has dropped. Hopefully, the government will deliver on its promise,” he says.

On October 31, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 8,000 crore, which he said will improve irrigation facilities in north Gujarat, including Banaskantha, Patan and Mehsana.

At the BJP’s Vadgam office, Govindbhai Chaudhary says the party suffered in the region in 2017 because of water scarcity, but it’s taken care of as Modi Ji has promised pipelines.

“The Congress is weaker after Alpesh Thakor, and Hardik Patel joined BJP, and would not get votes of Thakor and Patidar communities it got in 2017,” he says.

The party workers believe its tally will improve as leaders influential in their respective castes are contesting on BJP tickets in north Gujarat, including Balvantsinh Rajput, who quit the Congress in 2017, Shankar Chaudhary and Thakor.

However, the social composition of the region, with sizable Dalits, Muslims, tribals and OBC communities that are not amenable to BJP’s politics, has made the task challenging for the party.